A Coveted Gift
by inee
Summary: Starts at the beginning of The Awakening: Elena discovers she has a special talent for knowing people, and Aro sends Eleazar out to find someone with a talent like Elena's. When Elena gets captured, her friends will do anything in their power to save her.
1. Beginning

**A Coveted Gift.**

**AN: Hi everyone! You're reading the very first chapter of my first fanfic, and I hope you'll stick around to read some more . I know the first chapter may seem a bit rushed, but I had to explain a lot and I promise it will get better after this one. The chapters will be longer, too. I hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything Twilight- or Vampire Diaries-related. It all belongs to Stephenie Meyer and L.J. Smith**

Summary:

Starts at the beginning of 'The Awakening'. When Elena comes back from France, she discovers she has a special talent for knowing people. At the same time, Eleazar wants to leave the Volturi. On Aro's demand, he looks for a replacement and sees Elena. When Elena is taken away by the Volturi, Stefan will do anything in his power to get her back.

Some information on the characters:

In my head, Elena looks like the one in the TV-series. So if I ever describe her, she has brown hair. I think her character is a bit of a mix between book-Elena and TV-Elena. Bonnie looks like Bonnie in the books, and obviously, so does Meredith.  
Katherine really is dead, she's not coming back. And Stefan still loves her, of course, but she doesn't control his life anymore. He's over it, it _has_ been a really long time since she died, so I think that's understandable.  
I have an idea about where I'm going with this story, and for now, the Cullens aren't in it. I'm sorry..

I'm probably boring you all to dead, so let's get on with the story!

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**Beginning **

It all started when Elena came back from France. When she got back home, the first thing she did was making plans to see Bonnie and Meredith. She had been on vacation for more than a month and had really missed her two best friends. Normally, she would have returned on time to start the new school year, but there had been a problem with papers and passports and they had to wait a week before they could go home.

When she saw them waiting for her by her house, she was overwhelmed by a strong feeling she couldn't really identify. The most she could say was that it was _really good_. Not exactly like it was good to see her friends, more like it were her friends who were _really good_. She didn't understand it. At all.

"Elena? Are you okay? Elena!"

Elena realized the feeling had stopped her right in her tracks and she was standing in the middle of the pavement, staring at Bonnie and Meredith. She snapped out of it and walked over to them.  
It was Meredith who had called, and she was still looking worried at Elena's face. Bonnie, on the other hand, was looking at Elena with eyes as big as plates and her mouth formed a little 'O'.

"Bonnie? What's wrong?" Elena asked. She was thinking Bonnie's expression had something to do with the weird feeling, and she didn't like that thought. How would Bonnie know that she was feeling strange?

Meredith pushed Bonnie's elbow and rolled her eyes and said: "Bonnie learned she's psychic, and now she's having a premonition every five seconds. They're pretty accurate, though… I wonder how she does it." Elena could tell Meredith was joking, but Meredith's face said that there was more, that she wasn't sure if it was something to joke about.

Bonnie looked up at Meredith, stubbornly crossed her arms and said:

"It's true, you wait and see."

Elena wasn't liking this conversation and tried to change the subject by saying:

"Let's talk about this later, okay? I want to know what I missed when I was gone. Any new guys for Matt to compete with?"

It was the first thing that popped up in her mind, but when she said it she realized she hadn't talked to Matt for a really long time, and she didn't like the reason. It was because she didn't know what to say. Matt was her boyfriend, so he must've expected at least a phone call, since he knew she came home the day before. She decided she would figure out what to say to him later that evening, and to walk to school with him the next morning.

School, another thing she didn't want to think about. The year had already started and she thought that if you wanted to be queen of the school, you should at least be there from the beginning. Now she would be –well, not exactly the 'new girl' because everybody knew her –but it wouldn't feel good. She focused on Bonnie who was about to answer her earlier question.

"Oh Elena, you should _see_ him! Really, I know you love Matt and all, but _he_ is special, and handsome, and…"

"What Bonnie is trying to say," Meredith said, interrupting Bonnie's list of adjectives,

"is that there is a new guy at school, Stefan Salvatore, he came from Italy and lives in the boarding house. And as for how he looks, I suggest you listen to Bonnie."

She said it as if she didn't care, but a smile was playing around her lips, as if she knew Elena would be interested.

And Elena _was_ interested, she liked new challenges, but she was still with Matt, and even if that could soon be over, she didn't want to hurt him.

"I know what you're doing" she said, pointing at Bonnie,

"you want me to forget Matt so you can have him."

Elena was only kidding, but Bonnie blushed and said:

"I'm not saying I wouldn't like that, but that's really not what I was thinking about."

Bonnie and Meredith began talking about other things that had happened and told Elena the latest gossip. She was glad they didn't have to talk about Matt anymore, it made her feel bad.  
After they had gone to lunch somewhere, Elena felt much better. She drove to Bonnie's house after she had dropped Meredith off. When she stopped the car in front of bonnie's home, Bonnie just stayed in the car.

"we're there, you know." Elena said when she saw Bonnie wasn't paying attention.

"I know" Bonnie replied "I'm just waiting until you start talking about it."

"I don't know what you mean." Elena said, but she was quite sure she did.

"Of course you do. Elena, I know it sounds stupid, but I really think I can see things, sometimes. Like this morning."

"What kind of things?" Elena didn't have good feeling about this.

"You're going to laugh."

"I'm not." She assured Bonnie.

"I know something happened Elena. This morning, when you stared at us, I felt it."

"What did you feel?" was it possible Bonnie had felt the same thing?

"I don't know, this is going to sound weird, but… It felt like you were testing us, like you wanted to see if we could be trusted."

"where would you get that, Bonnie? Of course you can be trusted, I wouldn't have to test that. And even if I did, how would I do that and how would you be able to feel it?"

Elena tried not to make it sound that way, but actually, she really wanted to hear the answer. In some way, it had felt exactly like that. She hadn't understand it at that moment, but when Bonnie described it like this… She felt a chill run down her spine.

"Meredith told you: I'm psychic. My cousin said so. And no one believes me but it's true, sometimes I see people's auras or I get weird dreams. Most of the time I really don't like it. Maybe you can do something special, too."

"But I didn't _do_ anything!" Elena didn't know how she felt about this. She never really believed in stuff like that and Bonnie could have let her imagination run wild.

"Look, Bonnie, it's true that I felt something weird this morning, but it was probably nothing at all. But if it makes you feel better, you can always tell me when you see or feel something weird. And I'll tell you immediately if I do, too. I won't ever laugh at you, okay?" She only said this to make Bonnie feel better, but she had to admit she herself felt better, too.

Bonnie nodded and smiled. She got out of the car and Elena went home.

* * *

Elena was lying on her bed and staring at the ceiling. She had decided she would break up with Matt. She loved Matt, and he was her best friend. And just that was what she realized he had always been: a best friend.

She was waiting for sleep to come, but it didn't. She listened to music, read a few chapters in her favourite book, walked circles in her bedroom and even did some gym exercises to get tired. Nothing helped.

She decided to go for a walk outside. It was September, but the air was warm on her skin and a light breeze ran through her hair. She would only walk in her own street, Fell's Church wasn't a dangerous place to live, but it _was _the middle of the night and _was_ quite dark. Her aunt wouldn't approve of her sneaking out at night, let alone walk all over town.

Elena was still in her nightgown but in the dark it almost looked like a normal dress. When she was a hundred metres far from her house, she heard something and listened. It was just some leaves cracking, so she was sure it was only an animal. But when she walked on, she saw a figure coming out of the trees on the right.

Elena went completely rigid. Maybe if she was really quiet, the guy –he was too big to be a girl –wouldn't notice her. He stood a couple metres away, she stood in the dark and even though he stood in a beam of moonlight, she couldn't see him very clearly. Elena was sure he wouldn't see her. He's walking the other way, she thought, if I just wait long enough, he'll be out of sight and I can go home.

But that was before the feeling hit her. It was _bad_, really, really _bad_. It hit her with such force she couldn't stop herself from gasping. The guy heard her and turned around. Elena felt nauseous, the feeling was screaming at her to turn away and run. It was as if she had been under water for so long she just _had_ to go look for air. Without thinking, she turned and ran.

When she heard footsteps pick up behind her, she pushed her legs harder. Soon the steps behind her faltered and while she felt relieved, she knew it would be unbelievably stupid to slow down now.

When she reached her home, she yanked the door open and only after locking it with every lock she could find, did she stand still to listen if she had woken anyone up. She didn't hear anything, so she walked back to her room and thought about what to do.

She would call Bonnie. Bonnie would be asleep now, but Elena had promised to tell her immediately if anything happened, and she just really needed to talk to someone. Bonnie would understand. She picked up after the first ring, which surprised Elena.

"Bonnie! Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"Shouldn't you? Why are you calling in the middle of the night? Not that I don't want to talk, I was thinking about calling you, actually. But I didn't want to wake you for something that's probably nothing." Bonnie was talking very fast and sounded nervous.

"What are you talking about?" Elena was confused.

"I know this will sound weird, but I had a dream about you and you were in trouble and it just felt so real, I was thinking that maybe I should warn you or something."

"Bonnie" Elena said slowly "what exactly did you dream?"

"Well, I don't know the details, you were outside and it was dark, and then I saw that one guy who's always making trouble. He used to be in our school and he always got in fights and then he was kicked out because he bothered girls. Remember him?"

"Yes"

"Then I saw you running, so I figured he was after you. And I was worried. Why did you want to know, is it important?"

"You're freaking me out Bonnie. How did you know this?"

"You mean it's true? Are you okay? What were you doing outside?"

"I'm okay. I just couldn't sleep so I went outside for a walk."

"You know that's a stupid idea! So what did he do?"

"Nothing, I ran away. He started to follow me but gave up."

"So why didn't you call Meredith? I mean, she's always so grown up and calm and smart, I figure you would want to talk to her."

"You're my best friend, too, you know." But it was true, normally she would have called Meredith. "But I needed to tell you something…"

"What is it?"

Elena hesitated, now that she was safe up in her room, it all seemed stupid. Of course she had felt bad and scared. That's just how you feel when you're alone and in the dark and there's someone coming after you. She shouldn't make that big of a deal out of it.

"Nothing, it's nothing. I overreacted, that's all."

"Elena, I know there is something you want to say, or you wouldn't have called at this hour. I thought I overreacted as well, and see how true it turned out to be."

"You're right, I know you right, but I still feel stupid. I had that feeling again."

"Like with me and Meredith? That wouldn't make sense."

"No, not at all! The exact opposite, it made me sick with fear."

Elena didn't like that. If the stupid feeling had stayed away, she would have been completely calm and just would've waited for the guy to be out of sight. Instead it had made her run, she wouldn't let anything do that to her.

"So it told you he couldn't be trusted?"

"It didn't really tell me anything specific. Only that I had to get away as quickly as possible."

"It probably tells you if a person has good intentions or not."

"Well, it can tell me all it wants, I don't want it. I can decide for myself who I want to trust."

"I understand, really. I think my mom heard me talking, she's waking up. Do you want me to walk with you tomorrow?"

"No, but tell Meredith everything. I want to see Matt first."

"Okay, we'll wait at the turn before school."

"Bye."

Elena hung up and suddenly felt very tired. The walk outside had done it's job, she fell asleep almost immediately.

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**AN: So, that was it :) Please review! It would make my day if you liked it, and it would only make the next chapters better if you told me what was wrong.**


	2. Leaving

**AN: Hi! Here you have chapter 2, you'll meet the volturi in this one :) Hope you like it.**

**Thanks to my Beta: Danielle Salvatore! She the best beta I could imagine :)**

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer and L.J. Smith own all things Twilight / Vampire Diaries. I don't...

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**Leaving**

Fell's Church, Elena's POV

That next morning Elena couldn't wait to get to school. She wanted something normal. But first she had to talk to Matt, and she wasn't looking forward to it.

He was waiting for her when she arrived at his house. Then a feeling hit her again. If it wouldn't have overcome any other thing she might have felt, she would've been seriously annoyed at the immense feeling of _good_ that welled up in her when she saw Matt. The force of it almost made her stumble. Of course he was good, she already knew that, she didn't need a pushy feeling to tell her that.

She didn't know how to tell him that it was over, but when she looked at his face, she saw that he understood. She could see it in his eyes and in his smile.

"Matt…" she began, but he interrupted.

"I know what you're here for."

"You do?"

"I can take a hint, Elena. If I hadn't known by your messages, the lack of phone calls would've been a clue. It's okay." His smile was sad, but friendly.

Elena looked around, not wanting to meet his eyes. Matt didn't deserve this. Did he know he was really important to her, and not just any other boy she dumped because there was someone new? She tried to tell him that:

"I really like you Matt. I care about you, you're my best friend."

"I know"

"And that's what I realized we were… best friends."

He really was her best friend. She felt just as close to him as to Bonnie and Meredith. He had always been there for her, he'd always done what she asked, no matter how crazy her plans had been somtimes. She knew he was a better friend to her than she was to him, better than she deserved, but she wouldn't admit that.

"I know, Elena, I already said it was okay. It's not really a surprise."

"But we're still friends?" It sounded cliché but she really wanted it to be true.

He just hugged her and they walked to school together. Elena was thinking that it was only for the best. Matt wasn't what she was looking for, she had realized that when she was away. And it wouldn't be fair to lead him on. But what _was_ she looking for, then?

When they saw Bonnie and Meredith, Elena told him he didn't have to wait, she had to tell them something.

When Elena reached her two friends, she felt the strange sense of 'good' again, but only vague, as if it was just reminding her. That's good, she thought, maybe it won't last forever and I won't almost fall over every time I see them.

They were smiling at her but didn't say anything. Elena realized they knew why she had been talking to Matt, and she was glad they didn't talk about it. Meredith didn't say anything about the night before. Bonnie had told her everything and she believed it.

"So what did your feeling say about Matt? We should test it on some people." Bonnie said.

"I'd be glad if it would just shut up." Elena answered.

Meredith raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"I don't like it" Elena explained. "Bonnie told you everything right?" Meredith nodded.

"well, if it hadn't made me gasp or run away, the guy wouldn't even have seen me. So it just gets me in trouble, and I don't like feeling scared. Normally, I don't even _do_ scared."

Elena knew she was rambling but she didn't stop talking.

"Why does it have to be so _pushy_? It doesn't just tell me something, it throws something at me. It almost made me stumble when I saw Matt. It makes me feel weak." She stopped. That was exactly what was bothering her, it made her feel weak.

"Was it just as hard when you saw us today?" Meredith asked.

Now that Elena thought about it, it wasn't.

"No, it was more in the back of my mind this time."

"See? It'll get better, it's just the first time you see someone."

"But it'll be like the first time all day, I'll come near someone new every moment!"

"No, you won't. If it happens when you get near someone, It'll come all at once when you get near the school. 'Cause that's where everyone is." Meredith said.

That made Elena feel better. She would see people everywhere, but her first concern was school, and that would be okay, she thought.

When they were almost there, it hit Elena with such power she fell. Meredith caught her before she could hit the ground and helped her up with Bonnie.

It kept coming at her, she wasn't used to this, she made a squeaky sound and covered her ears. So many different kinds of good and bad swam around in her head, she felt dizzy. It was horrible, but at last it stopped.

If any of it had come alone, it would have been fine. Not everyone was as good as Meredith, Bonnie and Matt. She knew her friends were special. She did wonder about the guy from last night, he wasn't a real criminal, not like some people, and her feeling had told her he was terrible. She didn't even want to think about what she would feel when someone really dangerous crossed her path.

It had been really loud to Elena, but of course Bonnie and Meredith hadn't heard a thing. They had felt helpless when they saw Elena pressing her palms against her ears and all they could do was keep her standing upright. But now Elena was in control again, and they were relieved.

"Are you okay?" Bonnie and Meredith asked at the same time.

"I'm fine, it's over. Let's go." Elena was still a bit shaken and her voice wasn't very strong.

"Are you sure? People won't know what to do if that happens again in a school hall…" Meredith said.

"It'll be okay, you said it yourself, I just felt it all at once now." She shuddered.

"And I have a theory. Most people aren't immensely good or bad, that's just you two and Matt." Meredith rolled her eyes when Elena said that. "If I come near anyone who's just normal, I'm sure it won't knock me off my feet like it just did."

"I really hope you're right." Bonnie said. She really hadn't liked the sight of Elena trembling. _She_ was the one everybody had to look after, she was frail and small. Elena was strong.

The girls hurried to class and arrived just in time.

* * *

Volterra, Italy, Eleazar POV

"Have you talked to him yet?" Carmen whispered, looking up at Eleazar.

"I'll ask him today." he muttered.

Carmen had been asking him that same question for days now. She wanted to leave Italy as soon as possible. They could have left by now, the only problem was his cowardice. He didn't know how to tell Aro. He knew that if he said _one_ thing wrong, every plan he and Carmen had made could fall to pieces.

He hadn't seen Aro for quite some time now. It was because of something that happened in the south, and Eleazar had been needed there. Since he was back now, he couldn't put it off much longer. Carmen was getting more anxious every day, and he didn't like seeing her like that. They had met some time ago, and had decided to go live their own lives, away from the Volturi Guard.

She was sitting on his lap, running her fingers through his hair. They'd been sitting there for more than a day now, Carmen had said that they needed to recover the time they had lost when he had been in the south. And that was fine with him, he would be happy if he would never have to move again. Sadly, he had promised Aro to inform him on the talented newborns they had brought with them.

"I really have to go now…" he said reluctantly. "It would be best if Aro is in a good mood today, so making him wait wouldn't be the smartest thing."

"Hmm…"Carmen grumbled, and pulled his head down to kiss him. He smiled against her lips and stroked her hair. Then he carefully twisted out from under his mate, saying goodbye with a kiss on her forehead, and left the room.

As Eleazar walked through the halls on his way to the tower chamber, he wondered what Aro's reaction would be. His wanting to leave with Carmen wouldn't exactly come unexpected, but he was sure Aro wouldn't have thought it to be this soon. Maybe the work he had done in the south would please him enough to let him go easily.

He did believe in the Volturi's work, he was sure they were for a great deal responsible for the peace they lived in. Only lately he had come to have doubts about his place among them, the power didn't interest him. This wasn't the right place for him, and Carmen had made him see that.

He reached the chamber and went in, feeling more and more relaxed. Before asking Aro about leaving, he would tell him what he had found in the south. And he knew Aro would be pleased.

"Come closer, my friend. You have a lot to talk to me about, I'm sure." Aro said, while motioning Eleazar closer.

"I have, Master. We brought back three talented newborns from the south, if we can prove them innocent, they could be a useful addition to the guard."

"I'm very glad about that. Tell me what you found."

"There is one who would be classified as a tracker, though his talent is different from what we have in the guard. He's not able to find someone by tracking them, but he knows exactly where one is. The easiest way to explain how it works, is by imagining a map inside his head, and on that map he has dots for everyone he has met. He was useful in the newborn armies because he could tell how close the enemy was at every moment, and he knew if they sent a scout to investigate and where that scout was. I'm sure you can see the potential, Master."

"I certainly can, Eleazar. Would this particular vampire be interested in joining the guard, you think?"

"I'm not absolutely sure. He didn't handle not being in charge very well, but maybe he can change that attitude."

"That would be a necessity, of course. What else did you find?"

"The next one we found was easy to identify. She has the ability to create the illusion of being lost. Her talent has a different effect on vampires and humans. If she uses it on a human, this person will be entirely lost and feel like walking in circles. It will last as long as she uses her talent, and on a human she can use it without a limit. Our kind will be disoriented and won't find the right way immediately. I think it's because we don't recognize a scent as something we should follow, anymore. She can't hold it very long, but it fades very slowly when she stops using it, so it does last some time."

"That sounds really interesting. Tell me more about her."

"When we found her, she was on her own. She ran away from the army right after she was changed and has been wandering alone ever since. She was afraid of walking into anyone, so she never went far and stayed in the south."

"We could definitely prove her innocent, since she never fought. Would she want to join us?"

"I believe she would. She's already older than year, so she's quite in control of herself."

"Excellent! The last one?"

Eleazar was telling Aro about the third newborn they had found –Julian, who could immobilize humans and make vampires move amazingly slow, just by looking at them –When Demetri interrupted.

"Excuse me, Master, they need you in the Top Chamber."

"Is it important? I planned to come after I had talked to Eleazar."

"It's the newborn, Julian, he escaped a few minutes ago."

"Tell me what happened."

"He was in a room, guarded by Felix who was told to bring him to the Top Chamber. On his way there, he used his talent on Felix and got away before anyone could stop him. Jane was on her way, too. And she took care of him the moment she saw him running around alone."

Aro smiled at the mention of Jane and told Demetri to bring the three newborns to the Top Chamber, and since Julian's talent didn't seem to slow down other talents –as they had seen when Jane roasted him alive –Alec should guard them all.

"You can come with me to the Top Chamber, I'll talk to you afterwards." Aro said, and Eleazar nodded.

When they entered the Top Chamber, he saw the three newborns standing in the middle of the room, in front of the three thrones, all three under Alec's control.

Aro walked over to the first and took his hand. After a few seconds he said:

"He doesn't clean up after himself, very rebellious. Even if he did deserve a second chance, it would be bad for our reputation to give him one. Such a waste."

Eleazar knew that Aro really was disappointed. Not because the vampire in front of him was soon to be burned, but because of the talent he wouldn't have in his guard if that happened. It wasn't extremely rare, though, and they had Demetri.

He then went to hold the female's hand. "She didn't do anything wrong. Let me speak to her please, Alec."

"Her name is Mona." Alec informed him, and released her from his grasp.

Mona blinked and focused her eyes on Aro, who stood in front of her, still touching her hand.

She yanked it back and looked up at him, not seeming intimated.

"So, young one, I have heard you are talented. Has someone explained to you about the Volturi?"

"Yes. You keep the peace and enforce the laws. And punish the ones who expose us." She said, a little bit hesitant.

"That's right, have you exposed us?"

"No. I haven't. No one ever saw me." This time she spoke confident, but Aro already knew she spoke the truth.

"Very good. Would you care to join our guard? It's an honour to be asked, I hope you realize that."

"I do. Thank you for asking me, I would like to join you."

"That's perfect, someone will take you to your room when we're finished here." Aro said, looking around for someone who might volunteer. Alec nodded and Aro went on with the next newborn.

He touched Julian's hand and let it fall back. "Alec?" he asked. Julian blinked and looked around the room. When he saw Jane, he launched himself at her, screaming:

"_You_! You _witch_!"

In less than a second he was laying on the floor, Jane's eyes on him. While she was smiling brightly, Julian was screaming and trashing around.

"I don't think he has what it takes to be an addition to the guard. Self-Control, for example. He fought in a newborn army, anyway." Aro said lightly, barely understandable because of Julian's screaming.

"Felix, Demetri. Take care of them, please." He said, waving at the newborn who was still desensitized and Julian. In a few seconds, the two were torn to shreds and set on fire. Mona, who was now standing between two burning fires, gasped in horror. Alec signalled at her to come closer, and together they left the room.

"You can all go now, thank you for your time." Aro said to the remaining vampires in the room.

Once everyone left, he turned to Eleazar. "Now, what do you want to talk about?"

Eleazar offered Aro his hand. Aro held it for a moment.

"Ah, I see. Carmen is not happy amongst us. It's not very surprising, Marcus has warned me."

"Oh, of course. I wanted to ask you if we could leave." Eleazar thought that since Aro knew, he might as well just get it over with.

"Well, my dear friend, you must realize that you are of great value to us. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have gotten a useful addition to our guard today."

"I understand."

"I don't know if you do, Eleazar. You are one of the most important members of the Volturi."

"So I can't leave?" Aro can't force us to stay, Eleazar thought, he has to let me leave eventually.

"Of course you can! I would hate to see you go, but I can't hold you here against your will! But you have to do something for me first, to compensate your leaving, you must see that."

"I do. What do you want?" he thought it was best to do what Aro asked, he didn't want any problems.

"I want a replacement. Bring me someone who can take your place, and you're free to leave."

"But Master! That will take a really long time! I have never heard of a talent that resembles mine!"

"I know, my friend. That's why it's so hard for me to watch you leave."

"I will do what you ask of me." Eleazar sighed.

Carmen wouldn't be happy about this. But at least they could leave Italy. If he were to search for such a rare talent, he couldn't just stay in one place. Aro had him search all over the world if he wanted a particular talent, and even then it took a long time.

"Excellent! I hope you succeed. You can go now."

"Thank you." Eleazar left the room and headed to find his mate. No, he thought, she won't like this... At all.

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AN: Thanks for reading! Reviews are appreciated :) they make my day.


	3. Comforting

**AN: Chapter 3! I hope you like it. We'll meet Stefan in this one! **

**thanks to my awesome beta: Danielle Salvatore!**

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer and L.J. Smith own everything Twilight and Vampire Diaries- related.

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Fell's Church, Elena POV

When Elena walked home from school that day, she felt like her head was going to explode. And it wasn't because of the weird things that had been happening lately. _Everyone_ wanted to know about France, complimented on her new clothes, tried get a seat near her at lunch, … She hadn't found one moment to sit back and think.  
But maybe that had been a good thing, she thought, it hadn't been as hard as she thought it would be. The feeling had come to her only hazy, and it didn't bother her as much as it used to. She knew something had changed, though. It felt like she was in control of it, rather than the way around.

She had noticed this when the words Bonnie had said earlier ran trough her mind. "We should test it on some people." She had thought about that when she noticed Dean Jordans walking over to her. He was always extremely friendly, but to Elena it had always felt very fake. She hadn't known what to think, until now. When he had almost been at her side, she had actually _tried_ to feel something. And her new sense hadn't let her down. It didn't take her over, and she didn't really feel it the way she felt emotions. It was the way Bonnie had talked about it before: she tested the guy, scanned his intentions, and they weren't the best kind. 'Pretending', her feeling had told her, 'deceiving', 'be suspicious'. That was a lot more specific than 'good' or 'bad! run!'. Elena thought that maybe this new thing of hers could come in handy, that maybe it wasn't so bad.

When Dean had started talking to her in a sickly sweet voice, she'd cut him of by saying: "You don't have to act all friendly, Dean, 'cause I'm not buying it. I know how you really are, so don't try to play any games."

He had looked surprised, which was exactly what she was getting from him: 'surprise' and 'humiliation', but also 'discovered'. Which meant that her accusation had struck home.

She told her friends about this when they stopped at Bonnie's house.

"So that means you can do it whenever you want? And you know more than a person's intentions?" Meredith asked.

"I think so, I guess I know what the guy's most important feelings were… or something like that." Elena wasn't sure how it all worked, but it was more than she initially thought.

"That's awesome! Try it on me!" Bonnie pleaded.

Elena sighed, but tried it anyway. There wouldn't be any surprises, Bonnie had been near her all day. She was sure she would have noticed a big change.

"It still feels the way it did at first, it feels good, but stronger than with other people. And underneath that, I think you're disappointed and hopeful?" It ended up sounding like a question because Elena had no idea where those feelings came from.

"It's probably because of Stefan Salvatore. He wasn't at school today –which we already knew yesterday because the whole school is talking about him –but Bonnie wouldn't believe it and has been depressed all day."

Now that Elena thought about it, she hadn't really been paying attention during conversations, but she remembered that Bonnie had talked about him a lot. She was curious as to who this guy was, and what was so special about him.

"I wasn't exactly _depressed_, just the tiniest bit disappointed. And I was hoping he would be back tomorrow." Bonnie mumbled.

"Well, I am, too. I want to know what all the fuzz is about." Elena said.

After that, Bonnie went inside and Meredith went home.

Elena had been picking flowers along the way and by now she had a nice bunch. She was going to see her parents. She hadn't visited their grave yet because she came back from France only yesterday. It took a while to get there, but she didn't mind the long walk, it gave her time to think.  
When she had walked almost half of the way, she followed a little path between the trees. It wasn't any longer or shorter than the normal way, but she wanted to feel alone.

It was beautiful between the trees. When she had been walking for a few minutes, she stepped into a little clearing with high grass that came to her knees. The sun still stood high in the sky and beams of sunlight filtered through the leaves. It was such a quiet and peaceful place that Elena decided to stay there for a while. She looked for a tree trunk that lay in the sun and sat down on it. She let her backpack fall down next to the trunk and took off her jacket. She closed her eyes and tilted her face up to let the sun warm her skin.

Elena felt so calm, time lost meaning. She didn't know how long she had been sitting there, between being awake and dozing off, but it was getting darker. She couldn't go to the graveyard anymore if she wanted to get home before dark. She laid the flowers down on a patch of moss and thought it was almost as good as laying them in front of her parents.

Elena was bending over to pick up her backpack when she heard something on the other side of the clearing. She stood up and whirled around in one fast motion to see what had startled her. It was a guy. And he was standing on the edge of the clearing with one hand raised, as if he were about to say something. Instead of doing that he just stood there. Elena was annoyed, he had been watching her while she thought she was alone.

"How long have you been standing there?" She asked.

He dropped his arm as he slowly said "I …don't know…"

"Who are you?"

Elena realized she wasn't acting very friendly, but it felt like he had stepped in on a private moment.

"I'm Stefan Salvatore." He still wasn't able to utter longer sentences.

"Oh, I've heard about you."

So this was the guy everyone was talking about, Elena thought. Well, she could certainly see what Bonnie had been going on about, he was really good-looking to say the least. He had wavy dark hair, high cheekbones, a lovely mouth, expensive looking clothes, … Her eyes followed him up and down and then up again to once again stop at his mouth.

"I'm Elena Gilbert, I go to the same school as you, but I only came back from vacation yesterday."

He smiled, "I've heard about you, too."

Of course he had, she thought annoyed. She should have known people had been talking about her late return.

Then she realized something, she hadn't felt anything from this guy. Not even something vague. Was it already gone, her new sense? But when she tried it out, it turned out to be working just fine.

Elena wasn't prepared for the amount of information that hit her. It was just like the way it had been when she came near the school that morning. And if a whole day being surrounded by people hadn't taught her a ting or two about this new feeling of hers, she would have been covering her ears and struggling to stay upright all over again. Right now, all she did was yelp quietly and cringe. Stefan reached out as if to help, even though he still stood on the other side of the clearing.

He looked worried and asked: "are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Elena said, gasping. "I'll explain in a minute."

She didn't know if she would really tell him what was going on. At that moment all she could do was try to make sense of the complicated mess inside her head. Layers upon layers of different feelings had been coming at her with incredible speed. It would take way too much time to examine everything she felt, so she settled on the most important things. He didn't mean her any harm. If she wasn't this sure, she wouldn't still be standing there. She did sense that he was dangerous. Very dangerous. But his concern for her overruled any other thing that might have made her doubt him. She decided to get back to the amazing amount of feelings later.

Elena realized Stefan was still watching her with a worried look on his face, probably waiting for the explanation she had promised him. "I'm okay, really." She assured him. Her legs were shaking so she sat down again on the trunk and motioned for him to come closer.

That really hadn't been like with any other person she had seen today, this guy was as complicated as the whole student body. He came closer and slowly sat down beside her. For a while they sat together in silence, Elena didn't know what to say.

"Were you hurt?"

He asked, and for a moment Elena was too dazed by the sound of his voice to answer, then she shook her head and said:

"No, it was nothing. Some… things have been happening over the last two days, and I'm confused."

When she looked at his face, she saw that he knew there was more to it, and he wasn't about to let this go.

"What kind of things?" he pressed, and Elena thought about what to say.

"You can trust me." he said, and she realized she would tell him everything he wanted to know. She didn't know how she knew it, but Elena was sure that if there was anyone she could trust with her new secret, it was Stefan.

"I know I can." She said, because she knew it was true.

"That's what has been happening. Since I came back from France, I've been able to tell people's intentions, or what kind of person they are, or something like that. It's all very confusing."

Elena had been saying she wanted the new sense to go away before, but she had never wanted that as bad as she did now. It was because she hadn't had time to really think about it before. Last night had been crazy and at school she'd had to focus on a million conversations. It all came down on her now. What was she supposed to do? The thing hadn't come with a manual! _Why_ was it even there?

She felt a tear rolling down her face and wiped it away. She didn't want to cry with Stefan here. She wanted to save that for later, when she was in her room. Then she sighed. Oh, why do I care if he's here, she thought, I don't think being alone would be much better, I would probably feel even worse. So she let out the tears she'd been holding back so desperately.

Stefan surprised her by gently wiping them away and holding her to him with his arm around her. She put her head on his shoulder and leaned against him.

"Is this alright with you?" he asked, and she nodded.

* * *

Fell's Church (Stefan POV)

Stefan was on his way back to the boarding house, he had just fed very thoroughly and felt good. Being surrounded by people and having to walk in sunlight all day long had weakened him, and he realized he had to feed more often if he wanted to keep living this new lifestyle.  
He felt more comfortable here in the woods, where he didn't have to be careful about anything. He was moving faster than any human ever could because he felt like stretching his muscles. Even on the football field he couldn't completely let go, people would start noticing things.

That's when he saw her. At first he thought he was dreaming, he had been dreaming about her a lot over the past few days. But none of those dreams had been as beautiful, had felt as real, as this one. She was sitting in the sun, her face held upwards to meet the warmth, a soft smile playing around her lips. She looked peaceful. He was looking at her for a long time because he wanted to drink up every little detail. He saw the wind playing with her hair, the sun making it shine, her hands were folded in her lap. And that's when he noticed it. Her hands. She wasn't wearing her ring. Of course she's not wearing her ring, he thought, I have it here with me. Would this dream end just as horrifying as all the other ones? Would he _watch_ her turn to ashes this time? He couldn't let that happen! But she was already standing up, reaching down to pick something up. He wanted to stop her, but it would be too late. In every dream he had, he came too late, and all he ever found was her dress. He reached out and tried to call her name, but all he could do was whisper: "Katherine".

She turned around, startled. Her big blue eyes looked at him and there was something different about them. Surprised, he realized they looked angry. They weren't Katherine's eyes.

"How long have you been standing there?" she asked, and she sounded angry too.

And that's when it all came back to him. This wasn't a dream, how could he have been so stupid? This was the girl that came back yesterday, Elena.

"I… don't know." He answered, still stunned at the sight of her. He'd seen her in a picture. He had been looking at a wall with photos of school activities when he first saw her. He had thought it was Katherine. He'd started asking about her and looking for information about her, until he was a hundred percent sure she _wasn't_ Katherine. And now that he saw her for real, he knew she wasn't. Her stance was confident, and just by looking in her eyes, one could see that she was strong willed. He realized she'd asked him something, his name.

"I'm Stefan Salvatore."

"Oh, I've heard about you."

He watched her scrutinize him and it looked as if she liked what she saw.

"I'm Elena Gilbert, I go to the same school as you, but I only came back from vacation yesterday."

He already knew that and smiled "I've heard about you, too."

She looked annoyed.

Then something happened. He felt a probing thought hover around him and wondered where it came from. At the same time, Elena made a sound as if she were in pain and cringed. For a moment he thought she had felt it, too, but then he grasped that it came from _her_. He didn't think about that when he saw her cringing in pain. She suddenly looked so much more like Katherine, so vulnerable and small. He wanted to help her but didn't know what to do.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she gasped "I'll explain in a minute."

She seemed to be able to handle it on her own, so he waited. When she looked up again, she looked confused and a little pale.

"I'm okay, really." She said, and sat down on the tree trunk.

She motioned at him to come closer and that was something he had wanted to do from the first moment he'd seen her sitting there. What had she done? Had she looked into his mind? And how much did she know about him now? He wasn't sure, and he didn't want to scare her, so he walked over to her and slowly sat down beside her. He waited for her to speak, but she didn't say anything. He wanted to know what happened, but he didn't know if he should let her know that he had felt her probing, so he asked "Were you hurt?".

She shook her head "No, it was nothing."

Stefan knew that was a lie. He had felt the pain in her mind when he was searching for the one who sent the probing thought. And it had been _her_, he still couldn't really believe it. He knew she was human, because if this had happened before he had fed, it would've been much, much harder to just sit next to her. And he was very glad he had fed. He wanted her to trust him, he wanted to be able to comfort her. And not just because she looked like Katherine, but because of a reason he didn't fully understand. He pushed the thought away.

"Some… things have been happening over the last two days, and I'm confused."

It wasn't a good enough explanation. Stefan wanted to know everything, and what he wanted to know most was how much she knew.

"What kind of things?" he asked, when it became clear she wasn't going to tell him everything by herself. She hesitated.

"You can trust me." She only knew him for a few minutes, so he knew it sounded stupid, but he wanted her to understand.

"I know I can." She said, sounding very confident.

When she saw his puzzled look, she told him: "That's what has been happening. Since I came back from France, I've been able to tell people's intentions, or what kind of person they are, or something like that. It's all very confusing." She said, sounding miserable.

He hated that and he wanted to make her feel better, but he didn't know what would be okay with her. He couldn't stand it anymore when he saw a tear rolling slowly down her cheek. She angrily wiped it away with her sleeve and he could tell this wasn't her usual behaviour. She normally didn't cry in public, she held her head high and waited until she was alone. Then she sighed and more tears fell. She had let her guard down while he was there, and he couldn't describe how that made him feel. He gently wiped away the tears that had followed en held her against him with his arm around her.

"Is this alright with you?" he asked. And she nodded against his shoulder.

He knew it was a risk, holding her this close, but as he held her, all he thought about was making her feel okay. His own needs could wait.

* * *

Volterra, Italy, Eleazar POV

"He said _what_?" Carmen screeched.

"Don't scream! Someone might hear you!"

"Well, I don't care! They should all know for what kind of –Eleazar covered her next words up by coughing very loudly –leaders they work!"

"I have an important function, I can't just leave, you must see that, love." He didn't like it when he realized he was quoting Aro.

"Of course you can leave! And you're not just important, they're _using_ you! How can you be so blind!"

"What? Why don't you tell me about that later and calm down now."

He liked having a floor, and she was ruining it.

"_I_ _am_ _calm!_" She hissed, while stomping her foot with a force that made a dent in the floor. That seemed to stop her outburst. She gazed at the damage she had caused by pacing, there were crumbles of stone all over the floor. Then she sighed and slumped down in a sofa.

Eleazar went to sit next to her and pulled her closer. He tilted her face up so he could look at her and stroked her cheek. If it would have been possible, he was sure there would be tears rolling down from it.

"I'm sorry. I can't change Aro's decision, but you can come with me this time. We won't have to be apart. That's something, right?"

She nodded and put her head on his shoulder, leaning against his chest as if she were tired. He gathered her long black curls in his hand and held them so he could kiss her neck.

"Why do you wear your hair down all the time? I love the curve of your neck."

She grinned and turned her head to look at him.

"I wear it like that so you will play with my hair to hold it up."

He kissed her teasing smile.

"You had a lot of time to plot when I was in the south didn't you?"

"Yes I did, and I learned a lot about strategy while I was here. I guess the Volturi's way of thinking is rubbing off on me."

"Let's leave as soon as possible, then." He laughed.

"You know, I wasn't ready to let go of you when you left for your talk with Aro. Tomorrow morning is soon enough for me…" She smiled mischievously.

His love for her overflowed him and he pulled her closer, kissing her lips as they whispered to him in Spanish. He didn't care if he had to search all over the planet for decades, as long as she was with him.

* * *

**AN: So, that was it! I hope you liked it. Remember: Reviews are love. It would make my day. **

**A lot of Stefan/Elena stuff in the next chapter!**


	4. Caring

**AN: Chapter 4! I hope you like it :) **

**Thanks to my beta Danielle Salvatore, she's the best.**

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the Vampire Diaries or the Twilight series. It all belongs to LJ Smith and Stephenie Meyer.

* * *

Fell's Church - Elena POV

Elena felt better, she was still leaning against Stefan, her eyes were closed and she didn't want to move. But she couldn't sit here forever, and her aunt would probably start worrying if she stayed away much longer. She was thinking about that when Stefan turned to her and asked: "It's getting quite dark, won't your family wonder where you are?"

"They probably will." She answered, but didn't move.

"If you want to get home, maybe we should get up?" He didn't seem to like that idea either.

"Yeah, we should." She murmured…

He laughed and started to get up while she reached out to pick up her backpack. It was getting colder so she put her jacket back on, and then realized it was wet because it had been laying on the ground. She took it off quickly and hung it over her arm.

Stefan was waiting for her on the edge off the clearing and she hurried over to him. They walked through the trees together, and Elena hated the few spaces between them. She wanted him to take her hand, but she thought that maybe he didn't want to. Maybe the moment of intimacy in the clearing was just because she needed comforting, and he didn't want more.

But _she_ did, Elena realized, she wanted him. She felt a bit silly for thinking it, but the way he had held her had felt different than other times she'd been soothed, deeper somehow. And she had liked it. Whenever she'd been with a boy before, it had never felt special. When they had held her, it was because they were supposed to. That's what you did when you were a couple. With Matt it had been different, too. She could feel that he loved her in everything he did. But with Stefan it had been more than that. It had made her feel safe, as if nothing could hurt her. She didn't know if he wanted her in the same way, but she really wished he did.

It was raining when they walked back to the road, but the leaves held a lot of the drops back.

When the pathway ended and they stood on the pavement, it wasn't just a drizzle anymore, it was a downpour. Before Elena knew it, her shirt was soaked. Stefan was looking up at the sky.

"Did you come on foot?" She asked, and really hoped his car was nearby. She was completely drenched and soon all of her clothes would be see-through. He nodded, and when he looked at her she saw his eyes widen. He quickly shrugged out of his coat and offered it to her. She put it on and shot him a grateful look.

"You should run home with me, you'd get a cold if you had to walk all the way back to the boarding house. You can wait inside until it stops raining."

"I don't think it will stop anytime soon."

"I don't care."

He hesitated for a second, but nodded. When they arrived at Elena's house, she was exhausted from the run, and Stefan wrapped his arms around himself against the shivers. Elena felt bad for wearing his coat, but she didn't even want to think about the alternative.

She hurried inside as soon as the door opened and kicked of her wet shoes. Her aunt noticed Stefan on the porch and said: "Oh, don't stand there in the pouring rain! Come inside!" He stepped in and Aunt Judith quickly went to get them a few towels. For an awkward moment, Elena and Stefan stood there, dripping in the hallway.

Then Aunt Judith came back with the towels and said: "They're still warm from the drier."

She turned to Stefan: "You can clean up in bathroom if you want, it's right over there." she pointed out the right way.

Then she turned to Elena with one raised eyebrow. Elena wondered if her aunt had sent Stefan away, just so she could talk to her, but she had to admit that Stefan really had looked as if he needed a minute to clean up. "So?" her aunt said. Elena explained how she and Stefan had ended up soaking wet on the front porch. She left out the part about him holding her because she'd had kind of a breakdown. Stefan reappeared a few minutes later, thanked Aunt Judith and asked: "Is it still raining?". Elena and her aunt both turned to the window and looked outside.

"Yep, still raining buckets. But you better drive Stefan home now, Elena. It will probably rain all night and I want you to get some sleep, you look tired."

Of course she looked tired, she didn't get any sleep last night. But her aunt's offer surprised her, she hadn't thought about giving Stefan a ride. But she couldn't let him _walk_ home in this weather, now could she? Stefan was looking like he really wanted to refuse the offer, but couldn't find a polite way to do that. Elena almost dragged Stefan to the door before he could find one and tried to thank her aunt with eye signals.

When they were in the car, Stefan finally said something.

"You really didn't have to do that. It's not that far."

"Yes it is, especially if you have to walk in this rain. Besides, I don't want you to get sick."

He didn't answer. Elena thought about how beautiful the weather had been when she'd arrived in the clearing, and how close they'd been. There was something she didn't like about the memory but she couldn't really point out what. Then, when she saw Stefan sneaking glances at her, his brow furrowed, she knew what it was. She had liked it when he soothed her, but she wanted him to know that normally she didn't _need_ soothing. She hadn't really been herself at that moment. No, she thought, that's just it. It _was_ the real me, not the Elena everyone else knows. Only Bonnie, Meredith and Matt knew her like that.

But she wasn't weak, and from what Stefan had seen that day, he might think she was. She wanted to change that. She wanted him to know that she was strong enough to handle her new talent.

"It's not always like that, you know."

"What isn't?" She thought he knew what she meant.

"When I get near someone. It's not like that every time."

"With 'like that', you mean 'overwhelming'?

"Yes. That only happened with you."

"Oh, so it's _me_ who's the weird one?" he laughed, and Elena wanted to stick out her tongue.

"Don't laugh at me."

"I'm not." He said, instantly serious,

"I've seen my share of strange things, so trust me, I believe you." He reached over to take her hand.

Elena nodded, surprised by how intense he sounded and by the unexpected move. He hadn't touched her since they left the clearing but Elena wondered if maybe she had seen too much in that. She'd never felt the need to be close to someone like this before. Maybe he wanted to be with her just like she wanted to be with him. She decided to test her new theory.

"So you still like me, even though I feel freaky things?" She tried to sound confident. Normally she didn't have to try, flirting with boys had been easy as breathing, but this was too important. She kept her eyes on the road.

He laughed "I still like you."

Elena tried not to show the relief she felt at those words.

"Thank you. For today, I mean. I needed that." She said. Stefan only nodded and looked out the window. Elena didn't get it, one moment he was incredibly sweet and the next he was acting frustratingly detached.

When they arrived at the boarding house, Stefan turned to face her. He looked into her eyes and Elena drowned in his. They were the most beautiful green colour, and they looked so pained, at that moment there was nothing she wanted more then to ease that pain.

"Elena, can you trust me?" he asked.

"What do you mean? I trust you, don't you know that?" Only after she answered the question automatically, she realized it had sounded wrong.

"I didn't ask if you trusted me, I asked if you _could_." He said.

"What? You're confusing me."

"Elena, what does your sense say about me?"

He looked down while talking to her, not wanting to meet her gaze. She didn't get it, he wanted her to try to feel something? She tried, and what she felt was still overpoweringly much. She took a deep breath and curled her fingers around the edge of her car seat.

"I don't know, there's too much! It's confusing me!"

"I'm sorry, but try. It's important." He managed to get her fingers from the seat, but when he wanted to let them go, Elena held on to his hand very tight.

"It's hard to sum up. You're so _conflicted_!" Elena tried her best to explain what she sensed.

"It's made up of layers, a lot of them, but that's only you, no one else has that, why is that?" She didn't wait for an answer,

"The easiest one is on top, you're worried, angry, protective, you're… ashamed? Then there's some much underneath, but I'm feeling something that's even deeper, wait a minute."

She closed her eyes in concentration and took a deep breath before speaking.

"You want something, or need it? You really _need_ it. I don't know what it is, I know it's not 'lust', I felt that enough today to know the difference."

She shuddered at the memory of what she had felt with half of the boys at school.

"But it's really close, what _is_ it?" Her forehead creased in frustration.

She opened her eyes again and looked at him fiercely. "But I _can_ trust you, Stefan. I know that you care about me, I'm safe with you. And I'm not just saying that, I _know_ I am, I can feel it."

He looked at her desperately, "Elena, you should know that I am…" His voice faltered.

"Dangerous?" she asked. "I already know that, I knew that from the moment I saw you."

"Then why are you here? With me?"

"Have you listened _at all_? Haven't you heard that I said I could trust you? Don't you know that yourself?"

He looked away and Elena couldn't stand the depressed look in his eyes.

"Listen to me, Stefan." She said.

When he didn't meet her eyes, she held his head between her hands and forced him to look at her.

"I didn't like it when I tried this on you, you know why? It's because everything, even the smallest detail, was underlined with self-hatred. Why are you doing this to yourself, Stefan? I feel a lot of things I don't understand, maybe they're bad, but there are so many things that are _good_, too! What is hurting you? Tell me, I want to make it better."

He shook his head and whispered "You can't, Elena."

And then she kissed him. She planned to give him a quick kiss and pull away immediately, but forgot about that the moment her lips met his. She only thought about Stefan. Her hands were still holding his face and moved up into his hair. She felt him pull her close and all she wanted was to be even closer. The stupid armrests were making that difficult and pressed in her stomach. This kiss told her everything she needed to know: Stefan was what she had been looking for. She felt it deep inside her, it was a smouldering flame that ran all the way through her, and Elena knew that in that moment she changed. She knew what was different, she could feel it bone-deep: she was complete now. How could she not have known before? That she was only half of what she was meant to be?

She turned her face to the side to get some air, and Stefan moved from her lips to her cheek and then trailed kisses down her neck. Then he froze. He let go of her and sat back into his seat. Elena moved to see what was wrong, but he'd already turned his head away from her and she couldn't see his face.

"Stefan? Stefan, what's wrong?"

He said nothing and just shook his head.

"Did I do something wrong? If you don't want this, it's okay, I'm sorry." It's _not_ okay, she thought. Please don't say you don't want this, she pleaded with him in her thoughts.

"I think I'd better go now, Elena." He said, still not looking her way, and he moved to open the door.

"No, wait!" she said, while she locked his door with the button next to her. She knew it was a childish thing to do, but she didn't want him to leave like that.

"Tell me what's wrong. Please." she tried not to sound hurt. He just shook his head. She _was_ hurt. It had felt so perfect to her, the kiss had been enchanting. To her, at least. Why wouldn't he look at her? Had it felt that bad to him?

"Look at me, Stefan." She said.

When he didn't do anything, she scrambled over her armrest en squeezed herself between the dashboard and Stefan's seat. He realized what she was trying to do and wanted to unlock his door so he could get out. To do that, he had to reach back to push the button and when he tried that, his hand bumped into Elena, who was already cramped between him and everything else in the car. She grabbed his hand when it touched her and said:

"Stefan, you're scaring me! What's the matter? Why won't you look at me?"

"Leave me alone, Elena. Open the door."

He didn't sound angry, so Elena decided that if he wouldn't look at her, she'd look at him. She reached out to turn his face to her, but she could've been yanking on a rock for all the good it did. She tried to squeeze herself even closer to Stefan. She found a place underneath the dashboard where she could put her feet and after a bit of wriggling she knew she would be able to see his face if she turned. On any other moment, the situation inside the car would've been comical: Elena's body was twisted around the seats in a way she hadn't thought was possible. But she knew that whatever was wrong, it was important.

"Elena, please, don't turn around." He pleaded, and she froze. He didn't sound stubborn anymore, only serious and desperate.

"Why not?"

"Because… You won't like what you see." He said, exasperated.

"What will I see?" she asked.

He laughed without humour. "A monster."

Elena jumped. Somehow, she knew he didn't mean that figuratively. She didn't know what to expect, but she wasn't afraid.

"It doesn't matter." She sounded firm.

"You don't know what you're saying." He sighed.

"I'll prove it to you." She said, and turned around.

She couldn't help but gasp when she looked at him. The first thing she saw was the change around his eyes. There were dark shadows underneath them, and she could see veins running under the skin. His irises were as dark as his pupils. But it was true, she wasn't scared and it didn't matter to her. Gently, she stroked the bruise-like shadows and traced the veins. She heard his intake of breath. There was a sadness in his eyes she couldn't bare to look at, so she focused on his mouth. She had looked at it before, she had studied it when he sat next to her in the clearing. If she hadn't, she wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between then and now. But she noticed it, and lightly traced his lips with her fingertips. They trembled and he opened his mouth to exhale. It was dark in the car, but because they glistened in the light of the street lanterns, she could see his teeth and the extended canines.

But it didn't matter, and she had told him she would prove it. So she leaned forward and kissed him softly, her lips stroking his without hesitation. She was still bent in an uncomfortable angle, and her body started to protest. She groaned and turned until she was sitting in Stefan's lap. He was looking at her in wonder and slowly reached out to stroke her hair. Elena noticed that gradually, his eyes were turning back to normal, and his canines were getting shorter.

She smiled at him. "Now tell me, Stefan. What are you?"

"Vampire." He whispered, and Elena only nodded.

"Will you tell me about it?" She asked hopefully. She wanted to know more about him, she wanted to understand him.

"Not now, Elena. You're aunt must be wondering what's taking so long."

"I'll make something up."

He was struggling for words , "I'm not… _stable_, right now, Elena. I need to get out of this car and you're making it very difficult. I'm thinking about your safety, I don't want to hurt you, but if you sit this close now, that's going to be hard. You need to understand that this is dangerous for you!"

"You won't hurt me." She said, but at the same time she reached behind her to open the doors.

"Thank you." He sighed and opened the door.

"Will I see you tomorrow?"

"That's a Saturday."

"Can't I come over?" She didn't think school would be a good place to talk, anyway.

"I'll come to your house, my room isn't in the best condition."

Elena nodded, as long as she could be with Stefan, she didn't care where it was.

"Goodnight then, Elena." He said, and closed the door.

She waved at him but she didn't think he saw it. She took a deep breath and started the car. She had a lot think about while she was driving and she was home before she knew it.

When she was inside she went straight to bed.

She'd made up her mind about Stefan. She wasn't going to stay away from him. No matter what he said or did the next day, she cared about him.

* * *

Stefan POV

Stefan walked up the steps of the boarding house, his thoughts still in a haze. He couldn't believe what had happened tonight. During the whole time they had sat together in the clearing, and when they had run to Elena's house, he had been waiting for her to ask him something.

He knew that she had felt something about him, that she knew he was different somehow. Then, when she had insisted on driving him home, he thought she did it so she could be alone with him and talk about it. And she did! She brought up the subject and didn't ask him. He didn't understand why. So _he_ had asked _her_. And he'd regretted it almost immediately.

Because then she had started _trying_ to find something, so there had been a greater chance she _would_ find something, and also because he didn't like seeing her like that. He hadn't been able to stand it when he saw her fingers go white because she clutched her seat so tightly. He had wanted to loosen them, but she had gripped his hand instead, and it had felt good to him.

When she described what she felt, he had held his breath. She'd come _so_ close to knowing what he was, she even described bloodlust! And right after she said she knew he was dangerous, she told him she trusted him. He had been busy with absorbing all that, when she had kissed him.

And he had stopped fearing she would discover his secret. The only thing that came to his mind was to hold her closer. He'd pressed her body against his, momentarily annoyed at the armrest between them, tangled his fingers into her hair and kissed her back.

When she'd turned her head to get some air, he'd felt her skin flush under his lips. He had been kissing her neck when he'd reached the point where he could feel her pulse. And then it had hit him. He knew it was reckless, kissing her like that. But when he'd felt her lips crush down on his, that had been the least thing on his mind.

He'd felt his canines extend and had turned away quickly. But determined as she was, she'd managed to lock him in the car and look at his face, while bending herself in unimaginable angles.

And then what it all came down to: She cared for him. Even after she saw him changed, even after she knew what he was. He couldn't describe what he'd felt when she'd caressed the veins and skin under his eyes. No one had ever made him feel that way, not even Katherine, she'd never had the chance to see him like this. But he was glad it was Elena who'd kissed his predatory mouth, so softly.

He would tell her about himself tomorrow. He wanted her to know him. He cared about her.

* * *

**AN: Okay, so that was chapter 4. I wanted to get this just right, and I'm kind of happy with how this turned out. I'd love it if you told me what you think about it, so please review! :D**


	5. Remembering

**AN: Chapter 5, I hope you like it :) I promise there's more Volturi coming up, but this one's all Vampire Diaries. If you like Bonnie/Damon fanfics, be sure to check out Danielle Salvatore, my awesome beta, who has written some great ones :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything Twilight- or Vampire Diaries related, it all belongs to the great Stephenie Meyer and LJ Smith.**

* * *

Elena POV

The next morning, Elena was up early. She was in a good mood because she knew she would see Stefan today, and she decided to make breakfast for her aunt and her little sister Margaret. When they came down the stairs, she kissed the top of Margaret's head and spun her around. Aunt Judith raised an eyebrow and Elena just shrugged and smiled brightly. They ate together while Aunt Judith talked about her plans for the day. When Elena was asked about hers, she didn't really know what to say. She thought it was best just to be honest.

"I'm seeing Bonnie and Meredith later today, but first I'm meeting Stefan here at the house."

"Stefan? Oh, the boy who was here yesterday, right?" Aunt Judith pretended to be uncertain as to who he was.

"Yes, I guess we're going somewhere. He didn't say anything about it."

"Well, have fun, then."

They both acted very indifferent but inside, Elena was feeling giddy.

Elena hurried upstairs after breakfast. She didn't know when Stefan would come, he hadn't said anything about the time. Actually, he hadn't said anything at all, only that he would come to her house. He had been very desperate to get out of the car. Elena wanted to make sure she didn't make it hard for him like that again. She wanted to learn more about him. The only thing he had said was that he was a vampire. She didn't have any idea about what that meant.

She decided to dress up, just to keep busy. She picked out a dark blue dress that fit tightly around the waist, but then swirled open and came to her knees. She let her hair fall down her shoulders and pinned a hairpin with a butterfly on it to the side of her head.

And then she waited. She cleaned up her room for a bit, threw away post-its and papers that lay all over the room, and made up her bed again, just to kill time. When she heard the doorbell, she almost flew down the stairs to get it. Aunt Judith was thinking she'd never seen Elena this excited over a boy. And it wasn't even a real date! But she had to admit he'd been very handsome last night, even though he'd been dripping wet.

Elena looked at herself when she ran past the mirror in the hall and saw that her eyes were big and her cheeks flushed with excitement. No wonder Aunt Judith is looking at me like I'm crazy, she thought. When she opened the door and looked at Stefan, she suddenly felt very shy. She didn't know how to greet him. Most of all, she wanted to throw herself at him and be surrounded by his embrace, she wanted him to make her feel safe like only he could, but she didn't know if that was appropriate. First, maybe their moment of closeness had been only that: a moment. Maybe he didn't want to be with her like that again. That thought hurt so much she shoved it aside. Maybe he _did_ want to hug her, but he couldn't. He hadn't told her anything about being close, sometimes it seemed perfectly fine, and other times he couldn't stand it. That was the first thing she would ask him about when they were alone.

He must have seen her uncertainty, because he nodded and held out his arms. She smiled, relieved, and buried her face in his jacket. He closed his arms around her and surprised her by kissing the top of her head. She didn't want to move. And it seemed like he didn't want to either, because they just stood there in the hall, holding each other. But Elena had always been a curious person and finally curiosity got the best of her.

"Where are we going?" she asked, looking up at him.

"I don't care, you can choose. Everything's fine with me, as long as we're alone."

"Oh." Elena was surprised. "Well, Bonnie asked me and Meredith to come over later, the clearing in which we met yesterday isn't that far from the way to Bonnie's. And few people use the trail that crosses it."

"The clearing it is, then." He smiled as if he knew she would pick that place.

"I'll go and get my jacket, and then we can leave."

Stefan drove the first part of the way, otherwise it would take too long to get to the clearing. After they parked next to the trail between the trees, they walked together in a comfortable silence. When they reached the clearing, Elena decided to sit on the ground instead of the tree-trunk. It was dry and she liked being surrounded by high grass. He sat down next to her and pulled her against him.

"Why is it that you can hold me now? And yesterday you had to get out of the car?"

"It's because I… fed. Last night."

"And yesterday you didn't?"

"Actually, I did. And it would've been fine if I went to school the way I was yesterday, but I'd been sitting here with you for a while, holding you close. And we'd been sitting in the car for some time, too. I wasn't prepared for that."

"I'm sorry."

"That's silly. Don't be."

"So tell me more. What do you feed on?" She was anxious about the answer. It was unbelievably stupid, but she hadn't even thought about that before Stefan brought it up.

He hesitated. "I feed on animals. But it makes me weaker than others, the ones who feed on humans have more power, they can do a lot of things I can't."

"And you feed on… blood?"

He nodded, his head hung as if in shame. Strangely, Elena didn't feel horrified and she didn't want him to look at her like that, as if he was a monster and she should be appalled. "Don't be like that. You don't hurt people, right? Then you have no reason to look so ashamed." She went on before he could disagree. "Does it hurt when you bite someone?"

"Not if the person is willing, it even feels good. It only hurts if you resist it."

Elena hoped he didn't mind the questions. He only talked when she asked him something, and she really wanted to know everything.

"Have you ever been bitten?"

He nodded. "If not, I wouldn't be like this now." He gestured at his body.

"Tell me more about that."

He hesitated and Elena realized it had sounded like an order, and that hadn't been her intention. "I mean, only if you want to, of course… You don't need to tell me if it's personal…"

"No, I want to tell you. I don't know where to start."

"Why don't you start at the beginning? When were you born?"

"I was born in the late fifteenth century." He said, looking at her to gauge her reaction.

She didn't even have to try to stay composed, and she realized she'd already accepted it. Last night in the car, when she'd seen his changing face, when he'd told her what he was, she'd decided she didn't care. She'd decided that nothing he would say the next day would change her opinion. She hadn't thought it would be this easy, but sitting here, against him, there was no doubt in her mind that he would never hurt her. She smiled at him so he would go on.

"I lived in Italy with my brother. He never liked me, but it became worse when he came back from the university. There was a girl staying in our house, Katherine."

He spoke so quietly at the end, Elena barely heard him. She changed from leaning against him to sitting on her knees in front of him so she could look at him. His green eyes were filled with so much sadness, Elena's chest hurt just by looking at him.

"She looked so much like you, Elena, you wouldn't believe it. When I first saw you, I thought you were her." He stroked her cheek. She turned her head and kissed his palm. She could tell he'd loved Katherine.

"Tell me about her." She said softly.

And so he did. He told her about Katherine, about her beauty, about her childlike ways, about how much he loved her, about how much she loved his brother. He got caught up in the story, and before he knew it, he was telling Elena about the night she came to him.

"We told her she couldn't have us both, she had to choose. And when she came to me that night, I thought she chose me over Damon. We exchanged blood. That's how someone gets changed. When she drank from me, it felt so close, so intimate, more than holding her and kissing her. I thought she wanted me alone, she said we would be together for eternity."

"She lied?"

He laughed without humour. "No, she didn't lie. But she'd gone to Damon, too, told him the same things. So the next day, we got mad at her, told her she had to decide. And she did. Later that day, we found her ashes."

"She killed herself?" Elena was shocked.

"She did it, but it was our fault. She thought she was the only thing standing between us, and that when she was gone, we would love each other. She did it because we forced her." His pained eyes looked into hers.

"It's not your fault." She said, sounding firm.

He sighed. "We doomed her, and we doomed each other. I found her first, her ring was laying next to her dress, which was covered in ashes. She'd taken it of, without it we burn in the sun." He said, absentmindedly stroking the ring on his finger. "Me and my brother both wanted to keep it, so we took our swords and fought." Elena was as caught up in the story as Stefan, she wanted him to go on.

"He stabbed my heart, and I felt my body go limp. I died."

Elena gasped and her eyes were wet.

"He killed me, but I was furious, I hated him, and with my last strength, I lifted my sword and killed him, too. I killed my own brother Elena, over a ring!"

"It's not your fault, Stefan! What Katherine did wasn't very smart, and your brother hurt _you_ first." She wrapped her arms around him, a few tears had escaped from her eyes and they fell onto his shoulder. He laid his hands on her shoulders and smiled a weak smile.

"It happened a long time ago." She could tell wasn't agreeing with her, but he wanted to change the subject and for her to stop crying. She blinked her tears away and nodded.

"But you didn't really die." She said, so he would continue his story.

"Me and Damon both had just enough of Katherine's blood in our system. To complete the change, after you exchange blood, you have to die. If not, you just return back to normal. So we woke up in our family's tomb. Damon immediately left. I've seen him a couple of times since then, but I try to avoid him. He doesn't live like I do, and he's powerful."

The sun was warm and Elena felt dozy, she yawned. Stefan moved to lay on his back and he pulled Elena with him. She used his chest as a pillow and curled up beside him. Her eyes were closed, but se wasn't done learning more about him.

"What are these powers you always talk about? Can you do something special?"

"It depends on some things, how often you feed, how many humans you kill, how old you are, and lots of other things. We can move faster than humans, and we're stronger. That applies to me, too. But others can change into animals, or affect the weather, or compel humans."

"Like, hypnotise them?"

"Something like that."

Elena thought about that. She didn't like it, the thought that someone could control her will was disconcerting. Stefan must've guessed what she was thinking.

"There's something that can disturb it. It's a herb, but it doesn't grow here. If you wear or ingest vervain, no vampire would be able to compel you." Elena shivered at the word 'vampire'. Stefan hadn't used the word so casually before. He stroked her back, he'd felt the tremor go through her body.

"I would never hurt you." He said.

"I know." She whispered, and dozed off.

When Elena woke up, she didn't know how long she'd been asleep. It could've been minutes and it could've been hours. She looked up and saw that her hands had clutched the fabric of Stefan's T-shirt while she was asleep. He was playing with her hair and smiled when he noticed she was awake.

"How late is it?"

"You didn't sleep very long, only half an hour. It's twelve o'clock."

"I need to be at Bonnie's at one. Walking takes half an hour."

"Then we have plenty of time." He smiled.

She stretched and went to lay higher, her head next to his, propped up on her elbow. "We've been here for some time now, is it hard for you?"

"No, I was well-prepared when I showed up at your door."

"Good." She said, and bent down to kiss him. She kissed him softly on his mouth, but when he reached up to embrace her, she forgot to be soft and careful. She felt the fire burning inside her and in this one kiss, she tried to tell him everything she felt. How much she cared about him, how nothing else mattered and how he made her feel. She'd never kissed anyone like this before, it had always been just a kiss. And she knew this was somehow _more_. She and Stefan belonged together, she was sure of it. It was perfectly clear to her.

When they got up some time later, they held hands while walking through the forest. The distance between them on the way there had been comfortable, but Elena liked it a lot better like this. She squeezed his hand to let him know that, and sometimes it seemed like their minds were one, because he squeezed back and said: "I like it better, too." Elena wasn't surprised, she only saw it as more proof that she finally found her other half.

"We left a little late, I can drive you if you want."

"Oh, okay, thanks." Elena had lost track of time and she didn't want to step out of the haze she was in when she was with Stefan. She almost wished she could stay with him and go to Bonnie and Meredith some other time. But she wanted to tell them about Stefan. Bonnie will go crazy, she thought. Stefan released her hand so they could get in the car, but held it again when they were both seated. He didn't seem to close her out anymore and Elena was incredibly happy about that. She lifted their entwined hands and kissed his softly. He smiled at her and stroked hers with his thumb.

When they arrived at Bonnie's house, Elena reluctantly let go of him and unbuckled her seatbelt. He stroked her cheek as a goodbye.

"Have fun."

"I'll try" she grinned, but inside she felt worried. It had come up suddenly, but she had a bad feeling about leaving him. She knew it was irrational, but she still didn't like it.

"Stefan, this will sound stupid, but whatever you do for the rest of the day, please be careful?"

"I will." He said, but she saw that he didn't take her warning seriously. So what, she thought, I'm just being paranoid. She was trying to shake it off, but it didn't make her feel any better.

* * *

Bonnie POV

Elena had been right about Bonnie. When Bonnie saw Elena get out of Stefan's car, her eyes got big and her mouth fell open. Meredith gently lifted her chin to close it again.

"Stop staring, it's rude." She whispered.

"I don't _believe_ it! How does she _do_ it?"

They were watching from behind the window, and Bonnie didn't care if they saw her staring from behind the curtains. She was in shock.

"Does that mean I get free access to Matt?" She wondered.

"Don't talk about him like he's an attraction."

"You know what I meant." Bonnie grumbled.

They went to open the door for Elena.

"We think we know more about your feeling-thing." Bonnie said to Elena when they returned to the living room.

"What? How?"

"Internet." Meredith rolled her eyes. "Though it took some time to find any useful information."

"I should've known." Elena sighed. But she was curious as to what her friends had found.

"Let's go somewhere to eat first. I'm starving and we don't have anything but dry crackers." Bonnie and her sister had given their parents a weekend off for their anniversary. They were home alone now, and neither had gone shopping. "And before we tell you anything, you have to tell us _everything_ about what's going on with you and Stefan Salvatore."

Elena rolled her eyes and started talking while they left the house.

* * *

Stefan POV

Stefan drove away from Bonnie's house after Elena got inside. Then he went back to the clearing they'd just left. While Elena was sleeping, he'd felt blasts of power coming from somewhere in the forest. He'd noticed charms all over the forest, too. Used to mark territory. He'd felt the power before, but never nearby. Now he wanted to see where it came from. He had a fairly good idea about who it might be, and he didn't like that. He didn't even want to think about what it might mean if his brother was in town.

He was walking back to the road when he saw someone standing ahead of him. He could only see the person's back, but it was Damon, all right. Dressed in black, black leather jacket and straight black hair. He was sure Damon had already heard him, but he came closer. When he almost stood next to him, he noticed why his brother didn't turn around. Damon was watching something. Stefan strained his ears so he could hear what was going on at the edge of the forest. It was Elena. She was walking to town with her friends, and Damon was watching them. Stefan felt fear arise inside. Damon had already seen Elena, did he know she was not Katherine?

"I'm not after you girlfriend, Stefan. If that's what got you so worked up." Damon said suddenly.

"She's not Katherine." Stefan wanted to make sure he knew this.

"Oh, I know that. I wouldn't let you have her if she was." He sneered, still not looking at Stefan.

"Then _why_ are you here?"

Damon turned around. "I wanted to see how you were." Damon flashed him a smile, and then looked serious. "No, seriously, Stefan. Stay out of this."

Damon was being secretive and it only made Stefan angrier, especially since Damon had been looking at Elena.

"If you're not here for her, then why were you watching her? She's not yours."

Damon's voice was cold when he answered, "I don't care, I don't _want_ her. And I wasn't even watching her. And now leave me alone, little brother." Damon could be really dangerous when he got angry, and Stefan knew he shouldn't mess with him now. But then his words took on a different meaning. 'I wasn't even watching her' was Damon's way of saying 'I wasn't even watching _Elena_." Stefan couldn't let this happen. First of al, those were Elena's friends. Hurting them would hurt Elena, and that was something he would never allow to happen. Second, this was his town now, Damon couldn't go and feed all over the place. He tended not to be careful about covering his tracks, and Stefan didn't want to risk getting exposed.

"You can't have them, Damon. Move on to a different town. Some of us try to be inconspicuous."

"The ones who live on little bunnies and squirrels, you mean? So who's there to stop me? You? I'd like to see that." He laughed. Damon was harassing Stefan, who was on the edge of attacking. Damon went on, "Oh, I'd like to taste the little redhead, I bet she'd like it, too. Or the tall one. Or both of them! Have you ever tried that, Stefan? I'm sure Elena would love to." He smirked.

Stefan was furious, he hadn't been able to control the anger that welled up inside of him, and he launched himself at his brother. Damon was stronger than Stefan expected and he was knocked away by a swing of Damon's arm. He smashed into a tree and tried to get up, dazed by the strength his brother had used. How many lives had he taken to gather that kind of power?

"Don't ever think you can win this fight, little brother, you'll only get knocked down more, every time you try." Damon said.

"Stay away from them." Stefan said, he almost stood upright again, and he wouldn't let this go. He knew it was a stupid move when he saw Damon's face grow colder than it had been since they'd started talking. Damon kicked him down as if he were a mere human, bent over so his face was close to Stefan's and said: "You can't order me to do anything. And I'll prove it to you. And I'll make sure you are nowhere near to stop me." He kicked Stefan into another tree. Stefan wasn't able to stand up yet, so Damon went looking for something a few paces further into the forest. He came back with an old rope, covered in leaves and dirt.

"How convenient garbage dumped in the forest can be." He smiled at Stefan, who was barely even conscious.

Stefan felt his body being rolled over, and his arms were pulled backwards. With his foot, Damon rolled Stefan on his back again and towered over him. He was twirling a branch between his fingers. Stefan, alarmed at the sight of it, grunted and tried to get his arms freed. "Good luck." Damon said, and thrust the branch into Stefan's stomach. Then he changed form and flew away as a crow.

Stefan was in agony. He didn't know what to do. He was losing blood, and even if he could get his hands untied, his arms were pinned beneath his body. But he wasn't far form the road, and his confrontation with Damon had lasted only a few minutes. Elena would still be close, and she was the only person he could hope would help him. He could still faintly feel her presence because he was getting attuned to it, but he didn't know if her friends were still with her. He didn't care. All he could think about was the pain he felt everywhere in his body. With his last powers, he tried to send out a thought to Elena. Even if she got it, there was a great chance she wouldn't understand it. It was as incoherent as his thoughts, which were slipping away more every second.

* * *

**AN: Damon is being a jerk, I know, but remember that this is happening at the beginning of the first book. Thanks for reading and please review, almost every review I got was written by my best friend, so I'd really like to know what other people think about this story.. **


	6. Revealing

**AN: Thanks for reading! No twilight in this one (again) but be patient, they will have their time to shine :)**

**A shout out to Danielle Salvatore :) thank you for being an awesome beta! **

**And a happy birthday to Mona! One of my two reviewers and my best friend :) She's sixteen now ! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or The Vampire Diaries; It all belongs to Stephenie Meyer and L.J. Smith.**

* * *

**Elena POV**

Elena was walking between Meredith and Bonnie while she told them about everything that happened the day before. She left out the part about trapping Stefan in the car so she could look at his face, for obvious reasons.

"I can't believe it. You didn't even have to try! There were no plans A and B like with any other guy, it just happened!" Bonnie was very excited about it, but Elena was still thinking about the fear she'd felt in the car. Meredith was the first to notice.

"Is something wrong, Elena?"

"I don't know, I'm worried about Stefan. Since I got out of the car, I keep thinking something bad is about to happen." She bit her lip, unsure of what to do.

"Call him when we sit down somewhere, so you'll be sure everything's okay." Bonnie offered.

"I will." Elena said, and she felt a bit better.

"So, tell me more about today!"

Elena sighed. "Bonnie, I already told you everything there is to know."

"But I want _details_!"

And then Elena felt it. Or heard it. She wasn't sure what was going on, the only thing she was certain about was that Stefan was in trouble. She felt him in her head, crying out for help. She immediately stopped walking. "Stefan." She whispered.

"Elena?" Meredith asked.

"It's Stefan, I need to find him!" Elena was panicking. Bonnie and Meredith didn't understand what was going on.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"I don't know! I just need to find him, he's in trouble! I _know_ it." She looked around, not sure which way to go, but then abruptly turned and walked into the forest.

"Where are you going? How do you know Stefan is there?" Her friends called after her.

Bonnie and Meredith were trying to keep up, but Elena was running and they fell behind. Elena didn't know how she knew he was there, she just followed her intuition.  
And then she saw something a few paces ahead. It was Stefan, and he was lying on the ground. She called out his name while she ran over to him. It scared her when he didn't answer and she fell down on her knees beside him.

She quickly looked at his body and gasped when she saw the wound in his stomach. She held his face in her hands.

"Stefan? Stefan! Wake up! Can you hear me?"

Elena panicked when he didn't move. Why would anyone hurt him like that? She didn't know what to do, but when she looked at his shirt, covered in blood around the wound, she did know what he needed. Blood. Stefan had told her his kind healed faster than humans, especially when they drank human blood. But she could hear Bonnie and Meredith behind her. I can't tell them, she thought, they'd be horrified if they knew.

Her friends were finally close enough to see that there really _was_ something wrong, and they quickly ran over to Elena, who was still holding Stefan's head and saying his name. Bonnie gasped, her eyes wide. Meredith knelt down beside her.

"What _happened_?" She asked, shock clear in her voice.

"I don't know!" Elena cried, she was blinking away tears.

"I'll call the hospital." Meredith said, while taking her phone. "No!" Elena yelled, and she knocked the phone away. It fell down a bit further, one part of it was laying beside it.

"I'll buy you a new one." Elena said absently.

"Why did you do that? Do you want him to die?" Bonnie yelled. Meredith was staring at Elena, stunned.

"I can't explain right now, but please, trust me. We just _can't_ call an ambulance. Please." She pleaded. "Promise me you'll stay here and help me." Elena looked at her friends anxiously. Her friends looked at her as if she'd lost her mind.

"Okay…" Bonnie said slowly. "But you do know how to help him, right?"

Elena did know of a way, but could she tell them? She didn't know what their reaction would be. Her worrying was interrupted by Meredith, who said: "His hands are tied." Elena looked down and noticed that Stefan's arms were lying underneath him, bend back unnaturally. "You're right. We have to untie them." Elena said, while trying to lift Stefan up. He was too heavy, so Meredith helped her roll him to his side. Elena tried to loosen the knots but they were knotted very tightly.

"We'll have to cut them over. Do you have anything sharp?" Meredith shook her head and looked at Bonnie.

"I saw a bunch of garbage on the way here, leftovers from a campfire, there has to be a broken glass or something like that." Bonnie said, and quickly went looking for it.

"Oh, Stefan." Elena sobbed, looking at him. He looked incredibly pale, and he hadn't moved or made a sound since they got there. Elena knew this was bad. He must have lost a _lot_ of blood if he isn't healing, she thought.

"I did a first-help course this summer, but we never learned to deal with _this_." Meredith's voice was quiet at the end. "We should really call an ambulance, Elena. I know you don't want to tell us why we can't, but if you don't think of anything else that can help him before we free his hands, I _will_ find a way to call." Meredith said, threateningly."

Elena had to tell them. She knew that. They believed she would be able to help Stefan, just because she said so. If they didn't trust her, they would've called already. Now she had to trust _them_ not to freak out. Elena sighed.

"I know something that will help him." She said, quietly.

"That's what you said to Bonnie. But is it true?"

Elena nodded.

Then they both turned around, Bonnie was back, carefully holding a piece of glass between two fingers. She gave it to Meredith, who was closest Stefan's hands. Elena twisted them so Meredith could cut the rope easier. It took a while, but at last they managed to get Stefan free. Elena turned him on his back again and Meredith took his wrist. She frowned.

"This is not good. I hope you know what to do now, Elena." She said meaningfully.

"Promise me something first." Elena said, "What I'm going to say or do now, stays between the three of us. You can't ever tell anybody about it. Ever." She said fervently. Bonnie and Meredith frowned and nodded wearily.

"Stefan needs to drink blood."

Her voice was so quiet, she didn't think her friends had heard. But when she looked at them, she saw understanding in their eyes. It surprised her. She knew that Bonnie had been reading about things like this since she visited her cousin, but Meredith wasn't interested in these things. She'd always been quiet when an excited Bonnie talked about the creatures of the night.

Bonnie was the first to react. "You mean… he's a…?" Elena didn't say anything, she wanted to hear Bonnie say it. It then somehow seemed less like revealing Stefan's secret.

"A vampire." Meredith almost whispered.

"But he's not like the ones in stories," Elena said quickly, she didn't want them to think bad of him, "He feeds on the blood of animals. But he needs to heal, so I have to give him my blood."

Bonnie nodded, "I think I read about that once." She said, not seeming repulsed at all. Elena was relieved about that and looked at Meredith, as if she was asking permission.

"You have to do it _now_. We'll talk about everything later." Meredith said quietly. Elena scooted over to Stefan's head and put it in her lap. She didn't want to admit it, but she was scared. But after one look at Stefan, she resolutely picked up the sliver of glass they'd used to cut the rope. She knew it was dirty, but there wasn't anything else she could use now. She clenched her jaw and quickly slid it over her palm. The gash wasn't long, but deeper than Elena intended. She gasped and her hand trembled. Blood welled up immediately and she held it above Stefan's mouth. The blood dripped down on his lips and Elena watched him anxiously. Relieved, she saw his lips tremble.

"Stefan? Can you hear me?"

He grunted and swallowed. Elena touched his lips with her palm and his eyes started to flutter.

"He's coming around!" Bonnie said happily. Stefan licked his lips and looked up. His eyes focused on Elena. "You heard me? And you came?" He said hoarsely.

"Of course I came." She said softly. "Now drink, you have to get better."

"The branch… Wood… Inside me." He managed to say, then his eyelids drooped again.

"What does that mean?" Meredith frowned, Elena didn't know either.

"It's his stomach," Bonnie realized. "Someone hurt him with a branch, wood is one of the only things that can kill a vampire, and he can't heal if it's still inside his body."

Elena and Meredith looked at her in stunned silence.

"What? I read a lot about it." Then she looked at Stefan.

"Someone has to take it out." Meredith said.

Elena grimaced and Bonnie looked at Meredith pleadingly.

"Okay fine, I'll do it." Meredith said, looking at the branch. "It will bleed more when it's out." She warned.

"That's okay, he'll heal faster, too." Elena said, her hand was still bleeding, but she tried to keep the blood from dripping out of her palm, she didn't want to waste it.

"Okay, here we go." Meredith said, and she pulled at the branch carefully.

It moved a little, and Stefan groaned. "I'm sorry Stefan, I'll try to be fast." Meredith said. Elena caressed his face to distract him. It didn't help much, Meredith pulled the bough out in one motion, and Stefan cried out. He was still weak and his cry sounded more like a whimper. Now Elena brought her hand back to his mouth and let the blood drip into it. He didn't react. "Stefan, come on. This will help." She saw his lips move as he tasted the blood on them. He surprised her by shaking his head. Elena sighed, she hadn't known him for a long time, but she'd felt enough self-hatred from him to guess where this reaction came from.

"This isn't the time to discuss your morals! I can't go and catch a rabbit for you! Please, do it for me!" She pressed her hand against his mouth, but he stubbornly closed it. "Stefan, you're hurting! I can't bear to see you like this, please!" Elena was almost yelling at him, she was desperate.

"Stefan, just do it. If it makes you better, there's no reason you shouldn't. You're worrying Elena."

Startled, Elena turned around. It was Meredith who had spoken, calm as always. Stefan licked his lips, and Elena let out a relieved sigh. She brought her hand to his mouth again and smiled when he didn't resist. She felt his canines extend and they pressed in the skin next to the gash. The veins under his eyes were barely visible. It was a weird feeling, not unpleasant, very intimate. And she understood why people gave their blood willingly. It made her feel connected to him in a whole new way, she tried to imagine how it would be if it was her neck, not her palm. She saw Stefan getting stronger, his eyes fluttered open and with some effort, he lifted his hand to press hers harder against his mouth. Elena smiled.

After some time, he slowly sat up, not letting go of her hand. A few moments later, he stopped and released it. His teeth retracted and his eyes turned back to normal. Elena didn't think her friends had seen any of the changes in Stefan's face.

"This is enough." He said. His voice was still weak and he looked extremely pale.

"Are you sure?" Elena asked, she didn't want him to stop because of her.

"I'm healed, see?" He lifted his shirt and beneath the blood, she could see there was new skin, the wound was already gone.

She felt relief well up inside and threw her arms around him. "Oh Stefan! I was so worried! I'm so glad you're okay!"

He smiled weakly. "Thank you. For everything." He said, and then turned to Bonnie and Meredith. "I'm sorry you had to see that." He said, and hung his head.

Bonnie was smiling nervously and didn't know what to say.

Meredith said, "Who _did_ this to you?"

Elena turned to Stefan, she'd forgotten about that. All she'd cared about was to make Stefan better, but now she wanted to know, too. How could anyone do that to him? She wanted to hurt the one who did this, she wanted to make him pay. She would never forget how she'd found Stefan, he'd looked horrible. And she could see he was still in pain.

"It was Damon."

"Your _brother_?" Elena was shocked.

"You have a brother?" Bonnie asked. And Elena thought she sounded way too excited.

"Damon isn't like Stefan, Bonnie." She said, trying to convey a warning with her eyes.

"Elena's right. He's dangerous." Stefan said, grimacing while propping himself up on his elbows.

"So why did he do this? What happened" Elena asked.

"I'd been feeling a presence in the woods, and I wanted to know who it was. I saw Damon watching the three of you on the road. I told him to stay away from you, to move to a different place. He wanted to make sure I knew I couldn't command him. He threatened to look for Bonnie and Meredith." Stefan's voice got quiet near the end.

"He wants to hurt them?" Elena panicked.

Stefan laughed without humour. "No, hurting girls is not his style. He'd compel you."

"And take our blood?" Bonnie asked, her eyes wide. "Does it hurt when he does that?"

"It won't come to that." Elena said, determined. "Don't let anyone in your house you don't know. He can't get in if he's not invited in. Right, Stefan?"

He nodded. "You'll have to be careful when you're alone somewhere."

Meredith nodded "We will."

But then Elena thought of something, "Can't he compel you so you let him in?"

Stefan looked alarmed and Elena took that as a 'yes'.

"That doesn't matter," Bonnie said, "I learned a lot about herbs and stuff, vervain would protect us from him. I'll give you some of it."

"You have vervain?" Stefan asked, looking at Bonnie with wide eyes. Bonnie blushed and looked down, "I got it from my cousin. And actually, I'm still starving. I don't want to be rude or anything, but can we go and eat somewhere?" Bonnie asked, trying to change the subject.

Elena laughed, she was still worried about Damon, but the relief she felt now that she knew her friends would be protected and Stefan was okay made her giddy. "Let's go, can you walk?" She asked Stefan. He hesitated but slowly stood up. "I'm okay." He smiled, and the four of them walked back to the road.

* * *

**Damon POV  
**

Damon was watching the girls and that lame excuse of a vampire walk between the trees. He laughed at how weak his little brother was, there he was, sitting in tree, a couple of branches high, not even _trying_ to hide his presence, and yet that boy had no idea. He'd seen 'operation rescue-Stefan' from nearby and couldn't help but be amused by the little redhead.

Oh, he'd noticed Elena, seen her beauty. But she was nothing to him. She was nothing like Katherine, she was strong. And at the moment, he wanted to play with someone sweet and defenceless. His preferences changed sometimes, and he wasn't in the mood for Elena. Besides, his brother would act really annoying and even though Damon found it relieving and fun to kick him down from time to time, he was bored with him now.

And the other one, Meredith, didn't look like someone he'd have fun with. But this little witch, now _she_ was something entirely different. He'd swear she'd sounded enthusiastic when she heard about him, and that was _after_ she knew he'd pricked his brother to the ground. She must've been so disappointed, Damon thought, after learning about vampires for a whole summer, you finally get to see one and then it's _Stefan_. Now that's what they call an anti-climax. Poor little bird, he should show her what _real_ vampires look like. He flashed a smile, that was exactly what he would be doing tonight.

* * *

**Elena POV  
**

Elena, Bonnie and Meredith sat down on a bench next to the sandwich bar. Stefan had left when they passed his car, he was still weak and wanted to go home.

"So, I guess you left out a few details when you told us all about Stefan." Bonnie said.

"Just a few. Wasn't there something you wanted to tell me about?" Elena said, changing the subject.

"Oh, right! We found some information on your feeling thingy."

"I knew that already, tell me what you found."

"Right, we think it may be some kind of aura."

"Huh?"

"That's what I said, too." Meredith said.

"You know I've been reading about weird stuff."

"Like vampires."

"Exactly. And when you told me about your feeling, I remembered some things about aura's."

"Bonnie called me and told me what she knew. I wasn't convinced at first, but when I looked it up on the internet, it seemed the most plausible explanation." Meredith shrugged.

"Okay, so tell me about it." Elena was getting impatient.

"Well, it said that everyone has an aura, a bit like a bubble that surrounds you, but no one can see them, except for some animals and mythical creatures."

"And me." Elena said.

"Right, some people have the power to see them." Bonnie said, sounding very excited.

"But I don't _see_ anything, I just feel things." Elena frowned.

"I already thought about that. When peoples aura's touch or cross for the first time, they can feel something about the other person, sometimes. Which isn't very weird if you think it through for a minute."

"It's not?"

"Of course not! You know when you meet someone and you just really don't like him? Your intuition? It's the same thing, only you have it a lot stronger."

"Okay… I think I know what you mean." Elena said.

"There's an other thing I found," Meredith said. "Remember when you got near the school?"

"Yes?"

"Well, it seems that buildings have something like an aura, too. Not the building on it's own, but when there are a lot of people inside, a kind of mixture hovers around the building."

"That would definitely explain what I felt." Elena said, feeling better each moment. She still thought her new sense was weird, but at least it could be explained.

"This is awesome, Elena! You're talented!"

"Huh, I wouldn't call it that. But I'm glad I know more about it. Thanks." She smiled at her friends.

"No problem." Bonnie grinned and she reached out to hug Elena. Then she realized that vegetables were falling out of the bottom of her sandwich and mayonnaise was dripping on her clothes. "Oh, crap!" She yelled, and tried to wipe it away with her napkin. It only left a bigger smudge. Elena and Meredith were laughing at Bonnie, who was still struggling to get her sandwich back together and clean her clothes.

"I could use some help, you know." She grumbled. Elena and Meredith tried to stop laughing and helped Bonnie out.

"Because the two of you are so helpful and kind, I'll give you both some Vervain when we get home." She said.

Elena got quiet. "Are you sure it will work?"

"I'm sure. You can wear it in your clothes, or drink it as a thee. As long as you keep it close, it will work."

"How dangerous is this, Elena?" Meredith asked, looking serious. "I don't really know. Stefan told me about everything only _today_. But from what I know, you should be very careful. Stefan lives on animals, Damon doesn't and has a lot more power."

"Do you think he'd hurt us?"

"I really don't know, Meredith."

"Do you think he looks like Stefan?" Bonnie asked Elena, looking innocent.

"I can't believe you can even think about that now!" Elena said, feeling frustrated.

"I just thought that if he looks like Stefan, maybe we would recognize him if we saw him."

Elena raised an eyebrow sceptically.

"I don't think that's what Bonnie's worried about, but she does have a point." Meredith said.

"True, but I don't know. I'll ask Stefan, okay?"

Her friends nodded.

Elena realized she didn't really know anything about vampires. Stefan had told her a lot that morning, but it seemed there was even more that she didn't know. It made her feel uneasy in her stomach. She wanted her friends to be safe, and how could they be careful when they didn't know what to look out for?

* * *

**AN: That was chapter 6; I hope you liked it! Please review :)**


	7. Searching

**NA: Chapter 7! Finally some Volturi :) I hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: All things Twilight and Vampire Diaries belong to Stephenie Meyer and L.J. Smith.**

* * *

**Eleazar POV, Volterra, Italy**

"So you're leaving today?" Felix asked.

"That's the plan. But we'll come back to let Aro know when we find someone useful." Eleazar said, earning a dark look from Carmen.

"But we're looking for something very rare, so that may take a very long time." She said sweetly.

Felix ignored Carmen and said to Eleazar, "So, who's going with you?"

"It's just the two of us." Eleazar said, confused.

Felix laughed. "Aro would never let you two run off alone."

"We _will_ come back. I would never lie to Aro!"

"And I believe you, but Aro knows how Carmen can make you do anything, and she's clearly not thinking about coming back. Besides… Mates alone on a mission tend to get a little distracted." He waggled his eyebrows.

"Shut up, Felix! We're not taking anyone with us." Carmen hissed.

"She's a real Spanish fury, Eleazar, you should keep an eye on her." Felix said, he grinned and walked away.

Eleazar knew that Felix was feared by almost everyone who saw him, but he'd never had a reason to, and he found that he could often laugh with the immensely strong vampire. But what Felix had said bothered him. He'd counted on being alone, and Carmen definitely did, too. But he'd thought about this before and he'd come to the same conclusion as Felix. Aro would send someone with them. But he hadn't dared to tell Carmen about this. And now she knew. She was furious, he could tell. She knew Felix wasn't just teasing her, she realized that what he said was true. She turned to Eleazar.

"Tell me this is not happening!" She said.

"I don't know." He said truthfully.

"You said we would be alone! I don't like it here, I want to be free of them." She looked at him, pleading. He sighed, if she looked at him this way, he'd do anything to make her happy, and Aro knew that.

"I'll talk to Aro." He said.

Eleazar greeted Aro when they met in one of the chambers.

"I was looking for you, Eleazar. I'm glad I see you. I need to talk to you about your leaving"

"Yes?"

"I was thinking that it would be wrong to send you and Carmen out alone. You two need all the help you can get! I'm sure you'd appreciate it when someone was there to help you."

Aro had Eleazar cornered. How could he refuse this? He wanted to leave without incidents, so there was only one thing left to say.

"Yes, Master, I would." He sighed.

"Good! Demetri would be best to accompany you, but he went to get someone for me."

"Jane wouldn't be helpful, and you need her here." Eleazar said. He pretended to think about who was best, too. But he knew that Jane wasn't the most cheerful companion and Carmen couldn't stand her.

"Very true. So what kind of talent _would_ be helpful to you?"

"Well, Carmen and I both don't like to hurt people, and we have to get the one we find back here alive to change him or her. So maybe Alec could come with us?"

"I'll ask him. That's very clever of you, Eleazar." Aro said, and then waved him away.

Eleazar knew that Aro would approve of anyone he suggested, as long as someone was going with them. But at least Carmen would be slightly satisfied. If there was anyone amongst the Volturi she liked, it was Alec. Maybe it was because his talent was so much more gentle than his sisters'. And Alec liked to keep to himself, he wouldn't be a difficult partner.  
But that wouldn't stop Carmen from being extremely angry. She'd been like this almost every day, he would be glad when they were away from Italy and he had his loving mate back.

Bracing himself, Eleazar entered his room. He saw Carmen sitting in the loveseat, reading a book. He took an unnecessary breath to steady himself.

"Alec is coming with us." He said.

"Okay."

Even though his hearing was perfect, he couldn't believe what he just heard. She was 'okay' with Alec going with them? And he had been stressing out for a whole day, dreading to tell her that.

Carmen turned around to look at him. "You don't have to look so shocked. I can be reasonable. It's not your fault, I know that."

"I thought you wanted us to be alone?"

"I do, but I've been overreacting. We have forever to be alone. You just do what Aro asks, I'll survive." She smiled, but it looked forced.

Eleazar sat down beside her and pulled her against him. "That's not what you really think."

"It is, really. Of course I'd like it better if we could just pack up our things and leave. But I did realize I've been too hard on you. You can't help it."

He ran his fingers through her hair and kissed her softly.

"When do we leave?"

"Aro is going to talk to Alec, I guess we can leave after that."

"Good."

* * *

**Carmen POV, Belgium**

Carmen sighed. Again. She was incredibly bored, and she had been for over a week. Alec was the worst company in the world. If you could even call him company, she'd seen him for only a few minutes every day. They travelled at night, moving form one town or city to another, and that was the only time she could talk to him. And Eleazar was busy finding a talented human. She couldn't blame him for being gone the whole day, he did it for her, the sooner they found someone, the sooner they could be on their own.

Right now she was sitting on a bench in a park, looking at little kids on a field trip. She couldn't help but smile as she saw them searching for flowers that matched the ones on their worksheet. She heard them speak a language she didn't understand, and tried to remember in which country she was. They'd been crossing Europe for six days now, Italy was the first country they'd tried, then France. Of course Eleazar hadn't checked every person in Italy or France, but he had a weird way of working and Carmen thought she should just let him do this in his own way. They'd crossed the northern border of France last night, so now they were in Belgium. She liked it here. Italy and the south of France had been way too sunny, they'd had to do almost everything at night. Now there was almost always a cover of clouds which made it possible for her to wait outside while Eleazar looked around and Alec did his own things.

She fished her Ipod out of her bag and closed her eyes.

After 26 songs, she heard someone come closer, and a gust of wind made it easy to recognize Alec's scent. Happy to see him, Carmen quickly turned of her music and smiled at him.

"What have you been doing all day?" she asked him.

"Shopping, you?"

"Sleeping."

He snorted.

Then she got curious, why would Alec go shopping?

"So what did you buy me?"

He looked startled for a moment before he realized she was joking.

"I got you some chocolate, which is a specialty of this country." He said, while handing over a bar of dark chocolate.

"Why, thank you Alec! I have to say, this is probably the worst smelling gift I've ever received, congratulations. Tell me you didn't spend any money on this." Carmen said.

The Volturi were unbelievably rich, but she still thought it was stupid to throw money away like that.

Alec grinned. "I didn't, I got it for free when I bought something in a gift shop."

"Can I see it?"

"Sure," he said, while reaching inside his pocket. He showed her a velvet little bag. She took it and shook its contents into her palm. She gasped when she saw a thin silver necklace fall out of the bag. On it hung a little, but detailed charm in the shape of a dolphin. It shimmered in the weak sunlight and two blue little stones represented the eyes.

"It's beautiful! Jane will love it, I'm sure, though I'm a bit surprised you got her a dolphin." Carmen said, careful not to offend him or his sister.

"Ah, actually, I got Jane something in France. This is for Mona." He said.

Carmen tried to hide her shock.

"She's from Belgium, originally."

"Oh, really?" She was surprised. She hadn't acted very social during her stay in Volterra, but she hadn't locked herself up in her room either. And she'd never seen the young vampire after she got accepted as a new guard member. She wondered if Mona had been with Alec the whole time, but she didn't ask him.

They sat together in silence until they heard Eleazar come closer. Carmen hated waiting for him to be closer, she wanted to cross the distance between them and let him hold her. But it would be a little bit too conspicuous. When he was finally close enough, she took his face between her hands and kissed him passionately. She had no intention of stopping, until a cough came from Alec's direction. Not at all embarrassed, Eleazar sat down on the bench and pulled Carmen into his lap.

"I've been to every public place and every high school, didn't find anything close to what we're looking for." He sighed.

"Don't worry, you'll find her." Carmen said.

"Her?" Eleazar raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"I have a feeling it's a girl." She smiled.

Alec snorted, "You sound like you're talking about having a baby. Do you already know the name, too?"

"Not yet, but you can be her sweet uncle Alec."

"I'm so flattered, does that mean I'll have to buy her things?"

"You wouldn't be a good uncle if you didn't."

"Oh man. The Volturi will be broke in less than a year! A good thing you guys are leaving."

Eleazar was watching the conversation with amused eyes. He was glad Alec had come along. He wasn't around much, but he was easy to get along with. If he liked you, that is.

"Are you two alright with staying just one more day? I want to visit some more places." Eleazar asked. Both Carmen and Alec were okay with staying another day. As soon as it got dark, Alec took off.

"I wonder what he does all the time." Carmen mused.

"I don't know about other nights, but tonight he's going to feed. And we should, too." Carmen knew that. It was harder to go thirsty when they were around people, and it had been too long. "I can wait another day." She said. She hated killing and she knew Eleazar did, too. They both tried to postpone it as long as possible.

"It would be too dangerous, you know that."

Carmen nodded reluctantly and together they took off into the night.

* * *

**Bonnie POV , Fell's Church**

"Do you want me to walk with you until your home?" Elena asked Bonnie when they'd dropped of Meredith. Bonnie wasn't sure about walking home alone, but she didn't like being treated as a baby.

"I'll be okay, Elena. You can't guard me every second of the day. And besides, you'll be home faster if you don't have walk with me. But thanks." She smiled reassuringly.

"You sure?"

Bonnie nodded.

"Okay, be careful." Elena said, and they each walked home.

After a few minutes, Bonnie was wishing she'd took on Elena's offer. It's not that bad to be taken care of, she thought. Her friends didn't treat her like a baby, they were just worried. The walk home wasn't long, but every second seemed liked an hour. It was getting darker, and Bonnie was walking so fast she was almost running. She was afraid. She'd been pretending not to worry about Damon all day, but now she was alone and really scared. With every sound she heard in the bushes, she jumped and walked faster. When above her a big crow made noise and took flight, she screamed and started to run.

When she arrived home, it was clear that her sister wasn't there yet. Maybe she had to work late. Bonnie was mad at herself for getting this tense because of a crow. It was just a bird and she was glad no one had been there to see her make a fool of herself. The first thing she did was turning on every light in the house, that made her feel somewhat better. Then she got some vervain from a box her cousin had given her, for now she just put a bit of it in her pocket and she held some aside to give to Elena and Meredith the next day.

It was true that she'd been reading about mythical stuff, but it wasn't just because she was interested. It was because she'd discovered that she could hear and see things she'd never been able to hear or see before. Her cousin told her it was because she descended from the druids, so Bonnie had been looking up as much information she could find. She'd already told Elena about this, but she didn't like talking about it. It made her feel weird and it scared her a little, too.

When she took of her jacket, she remembered the stain on her T-shirt. Sighing, she pulled it over her head and after trying to wash it out in the sink, she dumped it in the laundry basket. When she entered her room, it felt too small, too close. This was strange because she never felt claustrophobic, let alone in her own room. She thought opening the window that overlooked the garden would make her feel better, but when she shoved aside the thick purple curtains, a scream escaped her mouth.

There was a guy sitting on the windowsill. Bonnie blinked –he was still there –she closed her eyes again, a little bit longer this time, and opened them. He was _still_ there –and now he was laughing at her! Was she dreaming? Well if I am, I'm not ready to wake up yet, she thought. The guy was extremely handsome, Bonnie felt her face get hot. When she took a step closer to the window, she saw his eyes go up and down her body. In shock she realized that she was standing there without a shirt on. She'd thrown it in the laundry and hadn't bothered to put something on because she was going to bed anyway. And now a stranger was looking at her while she was dressed in pants and a bra. Blushing like crazy, she quickly grabbed her blanket and wrapped it around herself. She wasn't certain she was dreaming anymore, because she was pretty sure that the embarrassment she was feeling was real. But if this was real, then what was this guy doing outside her window? Well, the only way to find out was ask him. She stood in front of the window and opened it.

"Well, hello there." He said as soon as she got the window open. "Can I come in?"

Bonnie was dazed, she couldn't understand what was happening. Her eyes were locked on his and she couldn't bring herself to speak. From behind the window, he waved his hand in front of her eyes to get her attention. Bonnie was still looking at his eyes, and there was something tugging at her memory while watching them. When his brow furrowed and they changed from laughing to serious and frowning, she knew what it was. Besides them being gorgeous and hypnotizing, they were also like Stefan's. They were black as the night, but they were shaped the same. And when she realized that, she snapped out of the haze.

"Who are you?" She asked, her voice barely louder than a whisper.

"Why don't you let me in so we can get to know each other better?" He said, and bonnie's knees went weak at hearing his voice again. There was a seductive edge to it, and she was about to give in. Then she remembered why she should not, unfortunately, let the most handsome guy that had ever come close to her room, inside.

"You're Damon." She said, though it sounded more like a squeak. The moment she realized it was Damon who was asking her to let him in, she felt like running. She remembered what he had done to Stefan earlier in the day, and knew that nothing would stop him if he wanted to do exactly the same thing to her. The only difference was that she would probably die and Stefan was fine now.

But she was wearing vervain, so he couldn't compel her into doing anything. Knowing he couldn't get in by compelling her made her feel somewhat calmer. She staggered back a few steps when his lips turned up into a dangerous grin.

"Since we already know each other, why don't we just skip that first part and do something else?"

"Like what?" Bonnie was stalling, she wanted to stride forward and close the window, but two things were holding her back. First, she was afraid to come closer to him. She'd been standing in front of him at first, but she'd been backing away the whole time and now she was standing with her back against the wall. She didn't know if he could do anything to her if she closed the window, could his arm reach in? Would he be able to grab her? She certainly didn't want to risk anything.

And second, though she was mad at herself for feeling like this, she didn't want him to leave just yet. Every time he spoke, his voice made her feel strange inside, but not in a bad way. And well, the sight of him wasn't bad either, she knew it was rude but she still wasn't able to stop staring at his face. She thought that if she could keep him talking, maybe he'd stay for a while longer without getting in. Or get bored and leave, so she could safely lock the window.

"Oh, I think you know." He said, and he winked at her. Bonnie was getting more scared every second. She thought she had a fairly good idea of what he was talking about and it made her feel light-headed. Her breath came in little gasps and her hands were shaking.

"How long do you intent to keep me waiting? I bet you taste good." He licked his lips, which were turned up into a teasing smile. That was more than Bonnie's nerves could take, before she'd made it all the way to her bed, she fainted.

Bonnie was trying to remember something. She was in that state when you know you're sleeping, but you can't get your body to wake up. Her mind was all fuzzy, but she knew there was something important she was missing. What had happened last night? Or was it still last night? Did she faint? Yes, that was it! She fainted because… Because… And then she remembered everything.

Her eyes snapped open and she tried to look around to see if Damon was near, but she only saw black dots covering her vision. Sighing, she held her head still and waited for her eyes to adjust. Then she felt something weird, her blankets were gone, there was nothing underneath her body. What was happening? Was she going crazy? When she could finally see clear, she wildly looked around. And not even a second later, her scream rang through the room. She was _floating_! She was hanging in mid-air!

_Stop screaming_. The voice startled her, it was Damon, but it sounded inside her head. She looked around the room. He was still sitting on the windowsill, he was holding one of his hands in the air and after a few seconds he raised one eyebrow. Oh, right, she had to stop screaming. Bonnie closed her mouth and sucked in a few deep breaths.

She was hovering in front of the window, her blanked still wrapped around her body.

"What are you _doing_?" She said, trying to sound angry, but only managing a squeak.

"I prevented you from falling on the ground."

"By _levitating_ me?" Her voice was getting stronger and she finally sounded normal again. A small part of her brain noticed that Damon must be _very_ powerful if he could just levitate people like that, even more so than she'd initially thought.

"Would you rather hit your head and bleed in front of me?" He said with a smirk.

"No!" She said quickly, trying to get further away from him but not succeeding.

"Exactly, that would be such a waste, since I can't get in." He flashed his teeth and Bonnie's eyes widened, she started kicking her legs, hoping that it would help her get away.

"Put me down!" she squeaked, sounding breathless.

His brow furrowed and he dropped his hand, which made Bonnie fall on the floor.

"Ow!" She yelled, when she landed on her back and the air was knocked out of her.

"You could've been a bit more careful." She grumbled, mentally kicking herself afterwards.

Pissing off a dangerous vampire probably wasn't the best idea right now.

Surprising her, he only laughed and rolled his eyes. He seemed pretty comfortable on the ridge of her window and she wondered how much longer he intended to stay.

"You need to leave." She said, trying to sound firm and in control, which was a ridiculous idea considering it was Damon she was talking to.

"You don't really want me to leave." He said, "we didn't even have fun yet! You want to know what it's like, you know you do."

Bonnie shivered, partly because she was dressed in a blanket and standing in front of the open window, and partly because she knew he was right, and that scared her. It was true, she _was_ curious, after reading about being bitten, it had never really left her mind. But she was afraid, too, and she promised herself she _wouldn't_ let Damon in.

She knew she answered too late to be convincing, but she said, "I don't. I want you to go away."

He feigned disappointment and said tragically, "Oh, well, I guess I can try to have some fun with your tall and serious friend."

Bonnie gasped, he was talking about Meredith! And her friends didn't have any vervain on them, so Damon could easily get inside her house. She wouldn't let that happen! How many times had Meredith protected her? Bonnie decided it was time she did something in return instead of being a burden to everyone. She didn't think Damon was bluffing, so there was only one thing left to do.

Her breathing sped up and with a trembling voice she said, "Come inside, Damon."

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**AN: So, I hope you liked it :) **

**Please Review! Every review is from the same two people, and this story has a lot more visitors. I'm not asking you to review every chapter, but I would love to know what you think about the story so far.**

**And now I'm going to stop whining :) thanks for reading! **


	8. Loving

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**AN: Chapter 8! Enjoy ;)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or The Vampire Diaries, it all belongs to Stephenie Meyer and L.J. Smith.**

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_Last Chapter: Her breathing sped up and with a trembling voice she said, "Come inside, Damon."_

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**Fell's Church - Bonnie POV**

"I thought you'd never ask." He said, and smoothly climbed inside. When he was in, he closed the window and turned to face her. Bonnie waited for him to move or say something, but he just looked at her and she felt self-conscious. She wanted to look down to check if the blanket was still in its place, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from his gaze.

When he came closer and brought his hand to her face, she had to fight the urge to cringe away from it and tried to slow her breathing. He stroked her cheek with his fingertips and let them slide down her neck until he reached her collarbone. His fingers left a tingling path on Bonnie's skin, and she didn't understand it, but she was anticipating his next move. Was this why people willingly let vampires bite them, because it felt like the right thing to do? Or was she just a crazy person and should she be screaming and running by now? But he hadn't hurt her yet, and he could've done so easily. That had to count for something, right?

"Are you going to hurt me?" She asked, her voice quivering.

"I won't hurt you. I promise." He said gently. And, surprising herself, Bonnie believed him. He spoke so fervently, it made her think that he didn't treat a promise lightly, and that he meant it when he said he wouldn't hurt her. But what did he mean with that?

"Then what are you going to do?" Bonnie asked, more curious than afraid now.

His fingers were still lingering at the base of her neck, and that definitely didn't hurt, so she couldn't help but wonder about what he would do next. The blanket was wrapped securely around her, but held up underneath her arms, so her neck and shoulders were bare and that made her feel a bit uneasy. But she almost felt sick to her stomach at the image of Damon feeding on Meredith. She'd never doubted that her choice to let him in was a good one, she didn't know how she knew, but somehow she was sure that it would end disastrous if that happened to Meredith.

So when he bent down and brought his lips to her neck, she didn't flinch away. She had to be brave now, and after all, how bad could it hurt? Stefan had been drinking from Elena and she sure didn't seem to be hurting. So she tilted her head to the side and anticipated the touch of his mouth. He leaned in and she felt his cool breath on her pale skin. Her lips trembled and she closed her eyes, waiting for the pain to come, but all he did was plant a soft kiss at the base of her neck and move his lips to her ear.

"You look like a Greek goddess, dressed like this." He whispered.

Bonnie's breathing faltered and when she opened her eyes, she saw a crow leaving her windowsill, disappearing in the night. Still dazed, she turned to look in her mirror. Her cheeks were flushed, her red curls were loosely draped over her shoulders and she wore her white blanket as if it were a dress. She was flattered by his words and she could still feel the place where he'd kissed her. _Kissed_ and not hurt. Her whole body was tingling, and it felt as if her skin was extremely sensitive.

She was still afraid of Damon –she wasn't stupid, she remembered what had happened earlier in the day –but she couldn't deny she liked the light-headed feeling he'd given her and the way his touch had send shivers trough her body. It was late, and even though she knew she was too keyed-up to sleep, she decided to go to bed. When she turned to take her pyjamas, she saw something dark lying on the floor. It was a silky black feather, where the light touched it, she could see rainbow colours glistening. She stroked it with her fingertips and without knowing why, she carefully put it under her pillow.

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**Elena POV**

When Elena awakened, the first thing she thought about was Stefan. She knew he'd been okay the night before, and he'd assured her that he was fine, but it didn't make her worry any less. She had to see him. So she quietly got dressed and after leaving a note to let Aunt Judith know where she was going, she left the sleeping house.

On the way to the Boarding House, she thought about the day before. She _hated_ Damon. She'd always wondered if you could truly hate someone, if you didn't know him. Now she knew she could. Stefan wasn't a monster, even though he believed he was. But Damon was. How could he? Stefan hadn't done anything wrong, and even if he had, leaving you brother to die, _that_ was monstrous. She didn't know what she was going to do when she saw Damon, but she wasn't going to let him get away with this. Powerful vampire or not, he would know exactly what she thought about him, and it wasn't pretty.

She arrived at the Boarding House and knocked. Nothing happened, and she tried the doorbell. The curtains on her right moved and she tapped on the glass. She got a bit mad, why wasn't Ms Flowers opening the door? Frustrated, she tried the door, it surprised her by swinging open easily and she stepped inside. Annoyed at Ms Flowers, she climbed the stairs up to Stefan's room. She hesitated when she stood before the door, she knocked but no one answered. She started worrying, what if something had happened during the night? What if he hadn't gotten better?

Quietly, she opened his door and entered the room. His curtains were closed and held back the daylight. In the half dark, she could see cardboard boxes everywhere on the floor, probably still from moving in. Carefully, she stepped around them and walked over to Stefan's bed. When she saw him lying there, asleep, she had to keep herself from crying, though she had no idea why. His face looked so peaceful and gentle, in that moment there was nothing she wanted more than Stefan. He was the only thing she wanted to think about.

She sank down on the bed and moved closer to him, trying to move the mattress as little as possible. She relaxed beside him and laid her hand on his chest, so she could feel it move with every breath he took. Only now she realized how important he was to her. Of course she'd cared about him ever since she met him, and he'd made her feel like no one ever had, and she'd worried about him, but it felt like she could only relax when he was right beside her, when she could feel his body against hers.

Looking at his sleeping form, she whispered in his ear: "I love you, Stefan."

She hoped that somehow, he would remember this, or would hear it in his dreams. But then she heard his intake of breath and saw his eyes flutter open.

"Stefan?"

He turned his head to the side and looked at her with wary eyes. "Elena? You're really here?"

She nodded, "I wanted to make sure you were alright."

He stroked her cheek with his thumb and smiled at her. Thinking about what he'd asked –if she was really there –it made her wonder if he had been dreaming about her. She saw realization dawn on his face, and she thought that maybe he'd heard her when she said she loved him. She didn't know how that made her feel. It was the truth, she'd never been so sure of anything, and she liked that he knew, but she felt vulnerable, too. She knew he cared for her, but was she as important to him as he was to her? She didn't know.

"Did you say something before you knew I was awake?" He asked. She tried to read his face, but that was hard to do in the dark.

"Maybe… Did you hear something?" she stalled.

It was quiet for a long time, that made her anxious and she wished she could hear what he was thinking.

He raised his hand to gently stroke her cheek and said: "I love you, too."

It took sometime before she realized what he had said, but when she did, she felt joy sweep trough her. She held his face between her hands and kissed him softly. He held her in his arms and stroked her hair. "You're everything to me, Elena." He whispered, and she could tell that he meant it. She was happy to stay there forever, in his arms, and snuggled closer to him. She heard him sigh happily and she fell asleep to the sound of his breathing.

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**Stefan POV**

Stefan was watching himself, it was a weird experience and he was almost positive that he was dreaming. But not entirely, because the scene he was watching was very familiar. He was watching himself fighting with Damon, and Damon was winning, so maybe this was an out-of-body experience. That happens sometimes when someone is badly hurt, right?

Now he was hoping it was a dream, because he felt ashamed to think that he was really this weak in a fight. But he was, and he hated it. He also hated that Elena had seen him like that. She'd been casting worried glances at him when they'd walked out of the forest, and insisted that he went home to rest. And he had to admit she was right, he had to get some sleep so he would heal.

So he'd figured it out, he was dreaming, because the last thing he remembered was going to bed. Now that he knew that the fight going on below him wasn't real, he was curious as to what was going on, and paid more attention.

It felt as if he were watching from up in a tree, his spirit was up high on a branch, right above the fight, watching what happened to his body. He saw Damon walk away form his dream-self, checking over his shoulder to see if Stefan stayed down. Stefan was annoyed with his dream-self. He could see blood sticking to his clothes, he looked extremely pale, and he barely moved. This was how Elena had found him the day before, and he felt shame well up inside.

Then he saw Elena, and even in this moment, his chest swelled with happiness. She meant the world to him, and that didn't make sense, but he couldn't care less. She kneeled down beside the wounded Stefan and her hands fluttered helplessly over his body. He couldn't see her face, but he heard her cry out his name, more frantic with each time he didn't react. He wanted to tell her that it was okay, that it was all a dream, but he didn't know how. Then he saw her take something from her pocket, and stab it into her palm. It shouldn't have been such a surprise to see her do that, she'd done it in real life, too. But he was still shocked at how much confidence she had in him.

He remembered how he gave his blood to Katherine. It was nothing like this, it wasn't an emergency, it was done out of love. He wondered if Elena would ever think about doing this if he wasn't weak and hurt. He'd promised himself he wouldn't ever take a human's blood again, but he couldn't help but think about it. He wouldn't ever hurt her, he'd sworn that the moment he saw her. It wouldn't be because of him, because he wanted it, it would be because she offered. He thought about how intimate and intense it had felt when he and Katherine were together, and all he wanted was to share the same closeness with Elena. But he pushed these thoughts aside, focusing again on the scene below. Dream-Stefan was drinking from Elena's hand, his head cradled in her lap, a lot like it had been not long ago. When his skin looked a bit healthier, he gently pushed her hand away. She stroked his cheek and laid down beside him.

Stefan longed for her now, he wanted to wake up so he could go to her house and take her in his arms. Then something changed. He felt as if he were pulled down, into the body laying on the ground. He could now feel his body again, he wasn't just a spirit anymore, and he could feel Elena's warm form pressed against him. Then he heard her whisper: "I love you, Stefan." He barely had enough time to register what she'd said –and to feel the happiness when he did –because he awoke with a start. His eyes fluttered open and he saw the dark ceiling of his room at the boarding house. The dream had felt so real, he could still feel Elena's warmth.

"Stefan?"

He was confused, was he still dreaming? He turned his head to the side and saw Elena laying next to him, looking at his face with worried eyes.

"Elena? You're really here?" She'd come all the way to the boarding house, this early in the morning?

"I wanted to make sure you were alright."

He caressed her face and smiled. He thought about his dream. It had all felt so real, especially near the end, how long had she been here? Had part of his dream really happened?

"Did you say something before you knew I was awake?"

He felt her face get hotter and he could tell her eyes were searching for his face in the dark. "Maybe… Did you hear something?" She whispered.

It had been real, he was sure. He didn't know what to think. She loved him. The beautiful girl who meant the world to him, loved him. He couldn't describe the feeling he had. Happiness wasn't big enough a word. He could see her expression change from embarrassment to anxiety, and the last thing he wanted was for her to question his feelings towards her.

"I love you, too." he said softly.

He saw a smile break across her face, and she brought his face to hers. He held her while they kissed, wanting her to realize what she meant to him, he told her: "You're everything to me, Elena." She snuggled closer and after a few minutes, he could hear her breathing slow. He knew he couldn't sleep anymore, but he didn't mind holding her while she slept. It gave him time to think about what had happened just now. He still couldn't really believe it. She loved him. And he loved her. He hadn't even known! Of course he'd known she was special to him, and that he cared for her, but he hadn't wanted to think about loving her. It hadn't felt right, he didn't want her in danger and he'd been afraid to admit his feelings, even to himself. But the words came so naturally when he said them, everything fitted. Gently stroking her hair, he watched her sleep.

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**Elena POV**

Elena was having a wonderful dream. She was hanging between dozing and dreaming. Her dream wasn't really logical, just flashes and colours, but it was all about Stefan, so she felt amazing when she woke in his arms a little later. She pushed herself into a sitting position and took his hand. She wanted to tell him something. She looked down and struggled to find the right words while tracing her fingers over his hand. He pushed himself up on his elbow and waited for her to speak. She'd been thinking about what she wanted to say when she was laying next to him, half-asleep.

"I was thinking about yesterday, when you told me your story." She began. She lifted her eyes to see his face and saw him nod so she would go on. "You said something about giving blood."

He froze.

"It didn't hurt, Stefan, when you took it yesterday. And you said it was something that should be done out of love."

He was shaking his head, "I didn't mean that you're _supposed_ to give me your blood if you love me, Elena. I would never ask you something like that."

"I know that." She said, wanting him to understand what she was saying. "But I do love you, and you told me how it felt, and I felt it yesterday. But you were hurt and I was panicking, I want to do it right." He looked away, and she could see that he wanted it, too. "I want to be close to you, Stefan."

He sighed. She lifted his chin and kissed him softly.

"You don't have to, I love you no matter what, you don't need to prove anything." He whispered against her lips, but she'd made up her mind.

She answered by pulling her shirt out of the way and tilting her head to one side. Stefan stopped kissing her lips and moved to her cheek and her jaw line. When he kissed the spot where he could feel her pulse, he hesitated, his lips hovering above her skin. Elena realized he stopped because of _her_. Her breathing hitched and her hands were trembling. Though she was more afraid than she'd been yesterday –She'd made the cut herself and she'd been worrying about Stefan –it was also excitement that made her feel this nervous.

"It's okay." She whispered, not wanting him to stop. She felt his lips on her skin and braced herself for what came next. She gasped when she felt his teeth pierce her skin, but the pain didn't last for long. There was a sharp sting, and then all she felt was love for Stefan. This was nothing like him drinking from her hand. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer. She was floating and never wanted to come down again. She lost track of time and when he pulled away, she didn't know if they'd been standing there for minutes or for hours.

Stefan looked kind of dazed himself and pulled her close again. Enclosed by his embrace, she realized no one had ever been this close to him. She knew he'd been with Katherine, but then it had been the other way around. The thought warmed her and she wished they could just stay here forever, away from everything else. But then her phone buzzed and she was pulled back to reality. Sighing, she felt around to find her purse and grabbed the phone. It was Meredith, and Elena felt guilty for forgetting her friends when she kind of wished the world away not a minute ago. Meredith told her she wanted to see her before going to Bonnie's house, so they decided to meet at Meredith's house.

oooooo

An hour later, Elena sat cross-legged on Meredith's bed, a plate with hot chocolate and toast between her and Meredith. They were both sipping at their mugs and it was quiet, but, as always between her and Meredith, it was a comfortable silence. Then Meredith lowered her cup and looked at Elena with worried eyes.

"Are you okay, Elena? You're looking pale." She said.

"I'm fine," Elena smiled. "I just didn't get a lot of sleep. I woke up early this morning to see how Stefan was doing."

"Is he going to be okay?"

"He's fine."

Meredith looked relieved.

"Are you okay with all this?" Elena asked.

Meredith hesitated. "I am. I'm glad you have Stefan, I like him. What happened yesterday was just… surprising. And I didn't really know how to react."

"Thank you for staying calm. And for getting Stefan to stop being so stubborn." Elena hadn't forgotten that it had been Meredith who'd gotten Stefan to drink blood.

"It was so weird to see you do that. The blood thing, I mean." Meredith looked uncomfortable.

"He would have died." Elena said quietly.

"I know, and it's a good thing you knew what to do. I'm _glad_ you gave him your blood."

"Do you want to tell me something, Meredith?" Elena had the feeling Meredith was struggling to find the right words.

Meredith sighed. "You know how people talk about my grandfather? They say he's crazy. He lives in an institution."

"I know, why are you telling me this?"

"He's there because he was attacked by a vampire."

Elena stared at Meredith with big, round eyes. "You _knew_ vampires existed?"

"Kind of. Most people say he's just saying things because he's delusional, but he wasn't like this from the beginning and I always believed him. But it's not something I like to think about and with all that happened yesterday, it all came back."

Elena knew that Meredith had been very open just now, telling her things she wouldn't tell anyone, and she tried to be understanding. "Do you want me to ask Stefan to stay away from you?"

"Of course not. I'm okay with it. I just wanted you to know why I acted so weird yesterday."

Elena thought this was a bit absurd, Meredith was apologizing for acting weird when her friend was feeding a vampire her own blood.

"You helped a lot." Elena said, smiling.

"We should go to Bonnie soon, she'll be expecting us." Meredith said, cleaning up the leftovers from their breakfast.

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**Europe, Eleazar POV**

Carmen and Eleazar were waiting for Alec, leaning against the hood of the car they'd rented. They would meet him here in half an hour and then leave for the airport. By now, they'd crossed every country in Europe and Eleazar wanted to try America next.  
Carmen was staring at nothing, her eyes sad.

"What's wrong, love?" Eleazar asked. He knew she wasn't thrilled about this trip, but he sensed that there was something else that troubled her now.

"I don't want to do this." She said quietly.

"I will find someone soon and then all this will be over. You won't have to wait for long anymore." He said, trying to comfort her.

She sighed. "That's just it! I don't care about waiting or being alone, I just wish we didn't have to _do_ this."

Then he understood. "You don't want to bring someone to Aro."

"I don't want to make someone's life miserable! I don't want to turn her into something she might hate, to make her wish for dead!" She automatically talked about a girl, as she had been doing for some time now. She was a hundred percent sure that the person who Eleazar would find would be a girl. Her hands were moving at an incredible speed while she talked, showing how troubled she was.

Eleazar took her in his arms. "She might not hate it. Maybe she's glad to be able to make a new start. Maybe she hates her life as it is now. She could be happy." He said, not really believing that himself.

"But she could have a family, someone she loves, she could be…" Her words faltered, and turning her face into his sweater, she cried a tearless sob.

Eleazar didn't know what to say. He knew she was right, they could be destroying someone's life. They would be turning someone into a killer, and he knew how hard it was to have no choice but to kill. But he'd been happy among the Volturi, for quite some time. And most of their kind were happy with what they were, they didn't think of themselves as killers. Why would the one he found be any different? He had met few vampires who agreed with him and Carmen. He tried to calm her by telling her that, but it didn't work.

"She will be different. She will be _good_." She muttered into his shirt.

"You can't know that, Carmen. How do you know we won't find an old man instead of a girl?"

She shrugged. "I just do. Blame it on my female intuition. I'm right, and you will see."

Then they heard a voice from behind: "Am I interrupting something?" It was Alec.

"Not at all," Eleazar said, "we're ready to leave."

He let go of Carmen and went to open the car door. Alec frowned when he saw Carmen's face, it was easy to see she had been crying, even though there were no tears. Keeping silent, as usual, he didn't ask anything and got in the car.

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**AN: Hope you liked it! Reviews make me happy, so don't forget to hit that button! Thanks for reading :)**


	9. Healing

**AN: Chapter 9! Fanfiction suddenly shut down when I was editing this chapter, so please tell me if you find any spelling mistakes. Anyway: Enjoy!  
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**Disclaimer: I don't own the twilight saga or the vampire diaries, it all belongs to Stephenie Meyer and LJ Smith.**

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**Fell's Church - Bonnie POV**

Bonnie heard an awful ringing noise and groaned. She turned around and buried herself in her warm bed. The noise went on and it took some time before she realized it was the doorbell. Confused, she opened one eye to look at the clock on her nightstand. She couldn't believe how late it was! She'd slept for half a day! She pushed the covers away and shivered at the sudden cold. Still half asleep, she stumbled out of her room to open the door.

Elena and Meredith looked surprised when they saw Bonnie open the door in pyjamas, her hair a mess.

"I'm sorry, I overslept, I hope you didn't have to wait for too long." She apologized, she didn't really remember how many times the bell had rung before she got out of bed.

"It's okay," Elena said, "we had a lot to talk about, and it's not cold outside."

"Do you mind if I eat breakfast while you talk? Do you want anything?" Bonnie asked, opening the fridge.

"We just ate, but take your time, we don't have anything to do today."

When Bonnie made herself some cereal, she found a note from her sister, telling her that she already went to work and let her sleep in. Bonnie ate her cereal while Elena and Meredith talked about trivial things. Bonnie guessed that Elena and Meredith had talked about what happened with Stefan before they came to her house, she thought that was a good thing, Meredith had been confused about a lot of things, and Bonnie hoped that Elena had been able to explain everything.

When she was done eating, she noticed the vervain she'd left on the table the day before, and quickly went to get it. Damon hadn't hurt her, but she knew he was dangerous and her friends needed protection. She gave them both a twig and some leaves and told them what it was for.

"That's vervain. You should put it in your clothes, or in a necklace, or whatever you keep close to you. Compulsion won't work on you, so Damon won't be able to make you let him in the house."

"So from now on, we just keep our eyes open for someone who looks a bit like Stefan and wears black? That's not very specific." Meredith frowned. Stefan had tried to describe Damon, but it was hard to visualize someone you'd never seen before.

"Yeah… about that," Bonnie said, "It's going to be a bit harder than that. I think we should look out for a crow, too. Apparently he can change into a bird."

"How do you know that?" Elena asked, confused.

Bonnie bit her lip, when she thought about the night before, her cheeks flushed with excitement. She didn't want to tell her friends what had happened, it was something she wanted to keep to herself. But they had to know about the crow, they had to be careful.

She wasn't good at lying, but she tried her best and said, "I had a strange dream last night, and it didn't feel like a normal dream. It felt like some sort of vision."

"So what did you see?" Elena asked curiously.

"I saw Damon, I think, he stood with his back to me, and then he changed into a crow. I know it sounds stupid, but I really think it was something more than just a dream."

There, that was almost a believable lie.

"Stefan told me something about that. He said that some of them can change into animals, the ones with a lot of power. So maybe Bonnie is right."

Then Elena changed the subject and they didn't talk about anything Damon- or vampire-related anymore. They chose a movie and made themselves comfortable on the coach.

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That night, Bonnie tried to stay up as long as possible. She knew Damon would come back, and she didn't want to be asleep when that happened. She'd invited him in and he could do whatever he wanted now. When she got tired of watching TV, she switched it off and started tidying the living room. When everything was in its place, she decided to go upstairs. Switching of light switches on the way, she made her way to the stairs.

She forgot to leave the light in the hallway on, and had to climb the stairs in the dark. Normally, this wouldn't have mattered, but she was already jumpy because she'd been thinking about Damon. When she was halfway up, a sound below her startled her. She heard something come after her on the stairs. She started to run, but her foot slipped of the step and she lost her balance. Bonnie felt her body hit the steps and gasped as her breath was knocked out of her. She glided two steps down and then stayed still.

The only thing she heard was the sound of her own fast breathing. Then, right next to her, she heard a yelp and she felt a wet tongue lick her face. Yangtze. The thing which had scared her was her _own dog_. Bonnie groaned and checked if she'd hurt herself anywhere. Her side had hit the edge of one of the steps, and it hurt when she took a deep breath, but everything else seemed to be fine. Feeling around, she scrambled up and reached the stairs.

Relieved to be in her room, she sat down in her small sofa. If she would go to bed, she'd definitely fall asleep. And she would _not_ do that. She was sure Damon would come, she felt it. And she was scared. She didn't know what to think about the night before. Had it been a trick? She didn't want to risk anything, so she fought the urge to lay down and tried to keep herself awake by reading a book. But her eyes were tired and she glanced at the clock on her nightstand. It was half past three in the morning, and she gave in. A short nap, she told herself and she stood up to go to bed. When she turned around, she uttered a scream – a quiet scream, she was already half asleep. Damon was standing right in front of her.

"Shht!" He said, and held one hand in front of her mouth. "Your sister already woke once when you fell down the stairs, don't make her come and check on you!" He hissed, and she tried to understand what he just said. Her head was swimming and the words were a mess she couldn't put together. She was _really_ tired.

"Huh?" she said.

"Never mind, are you hurt?" He asked, frowning.

"Maybe, Damon?"

"Yes?"

"I think I'm going to fall now…" She mumbled, feeling her legs give out.

"What–" Damon started to ask, but Bonnie swayed sideways and the last thing she felt were two strong hands catching her before she hit the ground.

* * *

**Damon POV**

Damon stood there, stunned, with a sleeping girl in his arms. There was no fun in them when they were unconscious, but he didn't think that waking her would be such a good idea. So he lifted her up and dropped her in her bed. She whimpered when he put her down and he frowned. He hadn't been overly gentle, but he hadn't been rough either. This bothered him, he didn't hurt girls, they loved him! He flashed a quick smile at nothing, thinking about that. He didn't know why he just left the other night, without actually _doing_ anything with Bonnie. But he didn't know why he had come back either, he hadn't planned to come inside, he hadn't even planned to be _outside_ of this house. But then he'd heard the noise in the hallway, and he'd sneaked in to see what was going on. He wasn't going to stay afterwards, but the way Bonnie had been trying to stay awake, it almost seemed as if she were waiting for him. Almost.

He looked at her sleeping figure. She didn't look peaceful, she was frowning and every time she inhaled deeply, she grimaced. He noticed her left hand clutching her side and carefully, trying not to wake her, he lifted the left side of her shirt. He sucked in a breath when he saw the bright red skin. A big bruise had appeared and it would look even worse later, the first patches of blue and purple were already visible. He lightly trailed his fingertips over the bruise and she winced.

He'd give her his blood. That was the first thing he thought. Then he came to his senses and almost laughed out loud, why would he give this human his blood? He'd seen her all of two times and _he_ hadn't even gotten _her_ blood. He started to turn for the window when Bonnie rolled over in her sleep and let out a sob. Sighing, he turned back around. He was turning into his brother. But no one would know about this, and it would make him feel better. Ugh, he couldn't stand his own thoughts. He sat down on the side of the bed and brought his wrist to his mouth. He bit down, and watched as blood welled up from the gash. He pressed his wrist to Bonnie's mouth and watched her swallow twice. His bite was already healed when he stood up and left through the window. Now he was going to eat, and eat properly. Now where in this town could he find a bar and some drunk girls?

* * *

**Bonnie POV****  
**

When Bonnie opened her eyes, she immediately remembered the night before. She looked around, but of course Damon had left. The last thing she knew was that he caught her when she literally _fell_ asleep. When she thought about her fall down the stairs, she carefully stretched her arms and legs. It surprised her when she didn't feel any soreness, her side had hurt very bad the night before. She reached up and placed her hand against her neck. She didn't feel anything, so Damon must have left without doing anything to her. How could she fall asleep while he stood in front of her? After staying up all those hours, not wanting to be asleep when he came. She couldn't believe it. She didn't even want to imagine what he could have done, but the fact that he hadn't hurt her while he could so easily, warmed her.

Bonnie entered the kitchen and saw her sister Mary leaning against the counter, eating cereal.

"They delivered something for you." She said, pointing to the table.

Bonnie examined the big, heavy package. She opened it and found a note, together with a thick book that looked very old.

"_I thought maybe you could use this,_

_if you want to develop your talents. _

_It's about witchcraft. _

_Call me and tell me what you think."_

Bonnie's eyes widened and she stroked the book with her fingertips. There was nothing on it except for her last name: McCullough. It was carved elegantly into the leather cover.

"What is it?" Her sister asked, coming over to take a closer look. "Ooh, the family's spell book." She said, looking enthusiastic.

"You know this? How come I've never heard about it?" Bonnie asked, feeling left out.

"Being spooky runs in the family, looks like you've got it, too." Mary grinned, but then became serious. "It's just that a lot of the McCulloughs practised witchcraft. I didn't even bother to try, I don't have the gene. You, on the other hand, impressed our cousin. She must've send you the book so you can practise." She shrugged. "If you want to know more about it, you should call her."

Bonnie nodded. She opened the book and overlooked the first few pages. It looked like information on witchcraft. She decided to read it before calling her cousin, so she would know what she was talking about. Then she sat down on the coach and settled for a long phone call.

* * *

**Fell's Church - Carmen POV**

They had arrived in America a few days ago, and were now stopping by in a town called Fell's Church. The town itself didn't seem very remarkable to Carmen, but Eleazar told her she was wrong.

"What _is_ it with this town?" He said the first day, looking shocked. Seeing Carmen's confused expression, he told her what he meant.

"It's full of them. Full of people with gifts. But they're not good."

"I know you've tried to explain to me about the way your gift works, but even with a perfect memory, I still don't get it." She said.

"You know how people's gifts or special traits get magnified when they change? That's usually the case with psychics, but not when they're witches by heritage."

"There's a witch in this town?" Carmen was amazed.

"Not just one. And there's other things, too. Though I don't know what exactly they are."

"Shouldn't we move on, then? It sounds spooky.".

"Are you serious? This is what I've been looking for! This is what we _need_! If I don't find someone _here_, I don't know what to try next."

Part of Carmen was happy to come closer to their goal, she'd thought it would take _years_. But part of her dreaded what would come next. Eleazar would find someone. A girl, she was sure of it. And they would basically kidnap her. And then turn her over to the Volturi, the ones she had been so desperate to leave.

"Why won't a witch be gifted?" She asked, looking for a distraction.

"I don't know. Humans wouldn't know about this, so obviously no one has done any research on it. Aro tried to find out how it worked, but he ended up changing a lot of witches he couldn't use afterwards. I can somehow feel the difference between them and a normal 'gifted' human."

"So how do you know you will find someone normal in this town?"

"It just has a weird vibe… I can feel all sorts of things here. I think we should find a place to stay, I want to search this town trough from top to bottom." Eleazar was getting excited.

Carmen sighed, the next few days would be boring. She wondered where Alec was. He'd taken off the moment Eleazar had stopped the car. She liked him, but she wished for some other company. Company that was _around_.

They drove around and found a empty house, just out of town. Eleazar got out and smelled the air. "It's been a long time since anyone has been here, it's perfect." He said. They wouldn't attract attention if they stayed here for a while. Eleazar went for a run to stretch his legs after sitting in the car for so long. Carmen unloaded their suitcases and easily opened the door, breaking the lock. They hadn't packed a lot, most of their belongings were still in Volterra, but they needed appropriate clothing if they wanted to blend in everywhere.

She decided to look around, something that always made her feel at home. She discovered that the house was small: one room which served as living room, kitchen and dining room, one small bedroom and a tiny bathroom. There wasn't a lot of furniture left, a low table, a couch and a bed without a mattress or covers. The bathroom was the only room fully furnished, but there was barely room to move. Carmen didn't care, the only thing she needed was a coffee table and something to sit on. She found a backdoor which led too a garden that looked like a jungle. It was obvious that no one took care of this place.

When she got back inside, she saw Alec sitting in the old couch, reading one of the books they'd bought on the way. She'd already finished them all, and decided to look for a bookstore later. She looked into the cupboards and found a little vase made out of glass, flowers were carved on the sides and she brushed of the dust. She liked it, so she went back to the garden and picked some flowers. When the vase stood on the table, filled with wildflowers, she sat down next to Alec and sighed happily. He looked up and raised an eyebrow.

"Was that some kind of freaky ritual?" He asked.

Carmen rolled her eyes. "I like to feel at home. You don't have that problem, you won't be stuck here for days." She sulked.

He sighed and put his book down. "I know you don't see me very often, and I was supposed to keep you company."

She shook her head. "It's okay. Blaming you is just easier than blaming Eleazar. Don't take it personally."

"He'll find someone here, he's sure of it."

She just nodded. She had a feeling this wouldn't be as easy as they thought.

She stood up and took her coat. "I'm heading into town, I want some new books."

When she was already in the car, she heard Alec say: "Avoid people, it's best if no one remembers us."

"I know, I will." She said while she drove away, knowing he could hear her.

She liked to talk to the people she met, and Alec knew this. She had to admit Alec was right, but she was a social person and what else could she do while she was bored and alone? She found that her self-control was better than Alec's, and she was sure it had something to do with her having more contact with humans. Eleazar's was good, too, he could interact with them without a problem. But she pushed herself, she helped little kids up when they tripped, she didn't shy away from people's touches. Of course the burn in her throat was always there, but it didn't make her go crazy with thirst, she could move it to the back of her mind. When she found the kind of store she was looking for, she popped in her coloured contacts and got out of the car.

* * *

**Elena POV**

Elena was bored. It was a holiday, and she was home alone. Stefan had some things to take care of, Meredith wasn't home either, and she couldn't get Bonnie on the phone. She'd slept in, but now she had too much energy to just sit around and do nothing. Tidying her room, something she always did when she had nothing else to do, she found her old diary. It was full. She'd used the last page the day before she left for France. She put it somewhere in the back of a drawer and finally had something to do: she would buy a new diary.

Not two minutes later she was out the door, heading for the bookstore. It was where she'd bought her old diary and she remembered they had a lot of pretty ones.

It was cosy and warm inside the store. She found the diaries on a shelf in the back, next to agendas and notebooks. After examining them all, she ended up with three favourites: a plain green one, a blue one with silver decorations and a red one with dots. The green one had to go first, her last one had been green with flowers and she wanted something different now. But then the choice was hard. They were entirely different, the blue one was elegant, but the red one was playful. She sighed. She was good at last minute decisions, so she took both of them to the front of the store and decided to wait until she had to pay for one of them.

There was a woman waiting for the cashier, her arms filled with at least ten books. She was beautiful, she had long, black hair that fell down her back in curls and kind eyes which were a kind of brown Elena had never seen before. The woman, who looked younger than Elena initially thought, smiled at her and nodded at the blue diary.

"If I were you, I'd pick that one. It suits you." She said.

Elena looked at both diaries one more time and decided to listen.

"I think you are right." She answered, putting the red one down and keeping the blue one.

Then the cashier came over and helped them both.

Until that moment, Elena had forgotten about her 'talent', which Bonnie described as seeing aura's. She thought about it when she felt something about the cashier, it wasn't anything special, just that the man was a silent person and that he didn't like meeting new people, he was a bit shy. And he was good at drawing portraits. This bit of information surprised her, she didn't know her talent told her things like that. Maybe it it's still developing, she thought. Her aura hadn't told her anything about the woman in front of her, so she tried it carefully, remembering what had happened with Stefan. She felt some things, but it was still fuzzy. The woman was passionate, maternal, gentle, but there was something that told Elena she had a lot of secrets. Elena didn't know why she couldn't get a clear feeling, it was as if the woman was wrapped in some kind of fog. She decided not to worry about it, she didn't really know how her talent worked and she would ask Bonnie about it later.

When Elena stepped outside, the cold air made her shiver and she regretted not wearing a warmer coat. It was only September, but it was unusually cold outside, and a cover of clouds hid the sun. She remembered something Stefan had told her: Some vampires can change the weather. A chill ran down her spine as the name 'Damon' flashed through her mind. She felt her phone buzz, it was Bonnie.

"Hi Elena! Where are you?" Bonnie was talking very fast and Elena imagined her jumping up and down with excitement.

"I'm on my way home from the bookstore. Why?"

"Can you come over? My cousin sent me this big spell book and I want to show you something!"

"I'll pass by your house, but calm down before I get there okay?" Elena grinned.

"Sure! I'm gonna call Meredith now. Bye!" Bonnie said, and then hung up.

Elena was still smiling when she heard a car pull over behind her. When she turned around, she saw the woman who had been in the store. She opened her car door.

"Do you need a ride? You look cold." She said.

Elena _was_ cold, and it was a long way to Bonnie's. She nodded and quickly got in the car. It smelled wonderful inside, like a mixture of flowers and fresh grass, but it was almost as cold as outside.

"I'm Carmen." The woman said.

"I'm Elena. Thanks for giving me a ride." Elena smiled.

"It's no problem at all, just tell me where to drop you off." Carmen answered.

Elena told Carmen how to get to Bonnie's house.

"Are you going to read all those books yourself?" Elena asked, pointing to the heap on the backseat.

"Yes, but I give them to my husband and our friend when I'm done with them. We're on a road trip together."

"Sounds nice, where are you from?" Elena asked, having noticed Carmen's accent. Her features were foreign, too, but her skin was very pale.

"My husband and I are both from Spain. Our friend lives in Italy, but I don't know where he was born, he doesn't talk much about his private life." Carmen said. Her voice had a musical quality to it, and Elena loved listening to it.

Carmen told Elena about Spain and Italy, and a few minutes later they arrived at Bonnie's house. Elena was surprised at how good Carmen had remembered her directions, she hadn't asked again once.

"I have to get out here, thanks again." Elena said, opening her door.

"I loved talking with you, Elena, I'm glad I could help." Carmen smiled and waved as she drove away.

* * *

**Carmen POV  
**

There was no one inside, except for the owner. Carmen walked to the back of the shop and scanned the rows of books for something that looked okay. She heard someone enter and felt the familiar burn when the sudden gust of cold air reached the back of the room. She continued collecting books until the pile was big enough to last for a few days, then she walked over to the counter. While she was waiting for the owner to come and help her, she saw the other customer walk over. It was a pretty girl with long dark hair. She was walking slowly, holding a diary in each hand. Carmen could see she was trying to decide between a red one and blue one.

"If I were you, I'd pick that one. It suits you." She said, pointing at the blue one with her chin, since her hands were full. And it was true, she didn't know why but she thought the blue cover with its silvery details was exactly right for the girl.

"I think you are right." The girl answered, after looking at both diaries again.

Then the owner was ready to help Carmen, and she put her books on the counter.

"A lot of free time?" He asked, looking at the pile.

"You have no idea…" Carmen answered, rolling her eyes.

* * *

When she was turning the corner of the street, she saw the girl who'd bought the diary. She shivered and held her jacket closed against the wind. There was something weird about the weather here, Carmen thought. She pulled over beside the girl and asked her if she needed a ride home. The girl seemed to like that, and quickly got in the car.

"I'm Carmen." Carmen said.

"I'm Elena. Thanks for giving me a ride." The girl said, smiling.

"It's no problem at all, just tell me where to drop you off." Carmen answered. She remembered the instructions while she studied Elena's face. She was very pretty, more so than Carmen had thought in the shop. Her eyes had an intelligent but mysterious look in them, Carmen immediately liked her.

"Are you going to read all those books yourself?" Elena asked, indicating the heap Carmen had dumped in the backseat.

"Yes, but I give them to my husband and our friend when I'm done with them. We're on a road trip together."

"Sounds nice, where are you from?" Elena asked.

"My husband and I are both from Spain. Our friend lives in Italy, but I don't know where he was born, he doesn't talk much about his private life."

Elena wanted to know more about Spain and Italy, and Carmen loved telling her all about it. She was sorry to see Elena go when they arrived at the right place.

"I have to get out here, thanks again." Elena said, opening her door.

"I loved talking with you, Elena, I'm glad I could help." Carmen said, and she meant every word. She waved as she drove away and was sad to think she would never see Elena again.

* * *

**AN: I hope you liked it :) Remember: Reviews = love :)**


	10. frightening

**AN: Hi everyone :) I'm in a good mood since chapter 9 was the first chapter to get 4 reviews. So thanks, Sammie en Yeah, you're awesome :).**

**Chapter 9 had a lot more visitors than just 4, so everyone else: shame on you! But I still love you for reading my story :)**

**Mona and VampGirl4ever, you're both amazing and thanks for reviewing every single time :) Danielle Salvatore: you're the best beta ever.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or The Vampire Diaries, it all belongs to L.J. Smith and Stephenie Meyer.**

* * *

**Elena POV  
**

Bonnie opened the door before Elena had even knocked and Elena could see she hadn't calmed down. She practically _dragged_ Elena to the living room, where the coffee table was filled with things.

"Okay, sit down, I want to show you something."

"What is all this? What did your cousin say?"

"Right, I'll explain first." Bonnie said, plopping down on the couch. "So, this morning a package arrived. It's from my cousin, Amy, and it's our family's spell book, which I didn't even know existed. Apparently, there's history of witches in my family, and I have the gene. So Amy sent me this book, it can help me develop my powers." Bonnie was beaming up at Elena.

"Bonnie, are you sure this is real? I'm not saying you're lying, of course not, but I don't think you should believe all this witch-stuff." Elena said, careful not to insult Bonnie.

Bonnie kept smiling. "I knew you would say something like that, and Meredith will, too. So I called Amy first and I read a part of the book and I practised before you came."

"What did you practise?"

"That's what I wanted to show you! Okay, now wait a minute…"

Bonnie started to clear the table and put a candle on it, some feathers and the book she had been talking about. Elena was watching her in confusion, she didn't know what to expect.

Bonnie opened the book and flipped through the pages, looking for something.

"Found it! Okay, now watch." She told Elena, her eyes were big and excited. She held her hands on both sides of the candle and quietly murmured something she read in the book. Her brow furrowed and Elena watched as the candle's fuse began to glow.

"Bonnie…" Elena started to say, but she stopped when Bonnie shook her head. After a few more seconds, the candle flickered to life and a bright flame danced between Bonnie's hands.

Bonnie looked op at Elena and bit her lip. "what do you think?"

"I… I don't know what to say." Elena said.

"Wait, I can do something else, too." Bonnie said.

She held one hand above the feathers and slowly moved it up and down. Not ten seconds later, the first feather began follow the movements of her hand. Elena gasped and leaned closer. Now all the feathers were swirling around Bonnie's hands and Bonnie was smiling brightly. Elena was stunned, this was one of the most beautiful things she'd ever seen. This moment is magical, she thought.

"So… what do you think?" Bonnie whispered, having noticed the change in atmosphere and realising that excited shouting would ruin it.

"It's… beautiful. I can't believe it." Elena couldn't find the right words.

Bonnie blushed. "It's just something that helps you build up your powers, and if you can do this, you're ready to try the real thing."

Bonnie told Elena more about witchcraft and spells, and Elena was fascinated. They talked until Elena had to go home, and Bonnie couldn't wait to let Meredith know all about it.

* * *

**Eleazar POV  
**

Eleazar was standing behind the trees, watching the girls hug goodbye. He'd felt something when he passed the house and he'd been waiting for the girls to come outside. His talent worked better when there were no walls between him and his target and now he could feel that the small girl was a witch by heritage. He wanted to leave, but when he moved closer to the other girl he had to keep himself from gasping. He couldn't believe it! Could this girl be the one he was looking for? After making sure he was right, he ran to the house they were staying in, as fast as he could.

When he knew he was within Alec's earshot, he said: "Alec, get the car, I found someone."

A few seconds later he arrived at the house and got in the car. The scent inside hit him as he opened the door.

"Can you please ask Carmen to _never_ give a human a ride again?" Alec asked, irritated.

Eleazar nodded, the blood he could smell in the car was the girl's blood, which meant Carmen had already met this girl. But he couldn't think about that now, he just had to find her and he would ask Carmen about it later.

They didn't say anything until he found the street where he'd last seen the girl. When he recognized the house he'd been watching, he rolled down his window and followed the girl's scent. It didn't take long before they could see her in the distance.

"It's her?" Alec asked.

"Yes, we'll get out of the car now. When I'm close enough to catch her, you can do your thing. Then we'll put her in the car and get out of here."

Alec nodded.

Eleazar moved closer to the girl. It was dark enough so even if she turned around, she wouldn't see him. She was walking fast and her steps sounded loud in the empty street. He looked at Alec and gave him a quick nod. Not even a second later, the girl stumbled. Eleazar caught her before she hit the ground and took her in his arms. He laid her down in the backseat while Alec went to get the purse she'd dropped on the pavement.

Eleazar was driving and Alec was looking at the wallet he'd found inside of the purse.

"Her name is Elena." Alec said, having found her ID. "Elena Gilbert."

"Good to know. What do we do now? Lock her in the bathroom?" Eleazar said sarcastically.

"I guess so. It's the only room without a window." Alec said dryly.

"Are you serious?" Eleazar lifted his eyebrows.

"Sure. It won't be for long, you can call Volterra when we're at the house and when Carmen comes back we can leave. Where is she, anyway?"

"She went shopping in a bigger town close by, but it's getting dark so she'll be back soon"

"She won't like this." Alec mused.

"She won't, especially not since she already gave the girl a ride."

"I noticed that, too. Why would she even do that?"

Eleazar shrugged. "That's just the way she is. She likes to help people."

Alec snorted. "I begin to see why she wanted to leave us so badly. How long do I have to keep the human like this?"

"Just wait until we're inside and I've put her down."

Eleazar hesitated when he stood inside. He hadn't done this before. Usually, he told Aro when he found someone and the rest of the guard took care of it. He'd ask Carmen. She had even less experience with this kind of thing, but she somehow knew how to deal with humans. But for now the bathroom would have to be enough. She'd have a toilet, at least. The bedroom didn't have a mattress or covers anyway. He opened the door and set her down on the closed toilet. Then he locked the door and wished for Carmen to come home soon.

"You can give her her senses back, Alec." Eleazar said while he sank down in the couch. A few seconds later he could hear the girl gasp and her heart rate picking up. After some stumbling, the doorknob moved. The girl tried a few more times and the door shook, but she gave up when it wouldn't open. He heard a sigh and he could tell she sat down on the floor.

After some time, Eleazar stood up from the couch and walked over to the bathroom door. When he opened it, he saw the girl –Elena, he corrected himself –sitting on the closed toilet seat, her head in her hands. She looked up quickly when she heard the door open. Her eyes were big but he could see that she was tired. She hastily stood up and pressed her back against the wall, her hands were tight fists by her side and her whole body was tense. He felt bad for her and raised his hands to show her he didn't mean her any harm.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to scare you. I'm Eleazar." He said, is his most reassuring voice. It didn't change anything about Elena's rigid stance. He truly wished Carmen was here now, he couldn't even imagine how disorienting this had to be for Elena. How scared she had to be.

"I don't want to hurt you, I promise. We'll tell you more about everything later, but for now just have to know that we need you. And… don't try to escape. It won't work." He didn't know what to say next, so he closed the door.

He hung his head as he leaned against the wall. He was horrible. What they were doing was horrible. He hadn't thought about how it would be once he found someone. He knew that Carmen had, and he didn't even want know how she would react to finding someone locked up in the bathroom. Someone she'd met.

He looked up when he heard someone running in the woods behind the house. He recognized the footsteps and ran outside to see Carmen. She just entered the back of the garden and he could see her anxious expression.

In less than a second she was in his arms, crying dry sobs.

"Tell me it's not true. Tell me it's not Elena." She said desperately.

* * *

**Carmen POV  
**

"I'm sorry." Eleazar said, pressing her to him.

Carmen shook her head, this wasn't his fault. She could see the pain in his eyes, this hurt him, too. She'd smelled Elena's scent not long before she arrived at the house.

"How long ago did you find her?" She asked.

"In the early evening, a few hours ago. I was hoping you would talk to her, I tried but… I don't think it did much good." He murmured.

She nodded and entered the house, she heard Elena's steady heartbeat form behind the bathroom door. Had she been in there for _a few hours_? It was barely big enough to be called a room! Carmen opened the door and saw Elena sitting in the corner. Leaning against a wall, curled up in a tight ball and asleep. Tears had left black lines of mascara on her cheeks.

Carmen's heart broke. She turned to face Eleazar and Alec, who was still sitting in the couch.

"You and you!" She said, pointing at the two men, "How could you leave her in that horribly _small_ and _cold_ room for _hours_! What were you thinking?"

Eleazar and Alec looked at her with wide eyes, perplexed.

"Alec, instead of just sitting there, go find her a blanket and a mattress."

It took Alec a few seconds to answer. "Where?" he finally said.

"I don't care! Just do it."

He hesitated, but left after a glare from Carmen. She could be very convincing when she was mad. She heard Elena's heart rate pick up and saw her staring with wide eyes.

"Are you hungry?" Carmen asked gently, and Elena slowly nodded.

"I'll go find some food." Eleazar said, and he was gone before Carmen could get even angrier.

Carmen heard Elena gasp at the sight of Eleazar's blurring speed.

From the moment Alec and Eleazar were gone, Carmen's anger disappeared and she had to keep herself from crying again.

"I'm so sorry you had to be in that stupid room the whole time. I should have gotten home earlier." She held out her hand to help Elena up. Elena slowly took it and stood up, her legs a bit shaky from sitting down.

Carmen waved at the sink, "you can clean up a bit, if you want. I'll be in the living room."

She headed over to the backdoor, where she'd dropped her shopping bag when she got home. She'd forgotten all about it, but now she was glad she'd bought some things. Elena came out of the bathroom and took a few uncertain steps in the direction of the couch.

"Can I sit down?" She asked, keeping her distance from Carmen.

"Of course you can." Carmen said soothingly. "You can do anything you want, as long as you stay inside. They'd kill me if I let you out."

Elena sat down and closed her eyes again. Carmen thought she probably hadn't slept well on the cold bathroom floor and wished she could just bring Elena home. She decided to give Elena some time to rest and quietly started unpacking the things she'd bought. After a few minutes, Elena's breathing slowed. She was curled up on the couch, her hands were folded underneath her head. Carmen was putting her new sketchbook away when she saw Elena shiver. She remembered the quilt she'd bought, she'd meant to cover the old couch with it, and gently draped it over Elena's body. Sighing, she sat down on the other side of the couch without ruffling the fabric, careful not to wake Elena. She was content to sit there, it gave her time to think about what they would do next. She knew that at least Alec would not be back until the next evening. He would be careful to stay out of her way. Of course he knew she wouldn't attack him, but he was smart enough to give her some time. Eleazar would probably be back around the morning, she was glad about that, she missed him already.

When she'd been sitting there for almost two hours, Elena began to move. She started muttering in her sleep and a single tear rolled down her cheek. Carmen couldn't stand the sight of it, she quickly wiped the tear away and softly padded Elena's shoulder to wake her up. Carmen thought that if she was having a bad dream, it would be better to stop it. But what would she see when she woke up? It would just be another nightmare.

Elena's eyes began to flutter and before she was really awake, she cried out Stefan's name.

"Shhh," Carmen tried to calm her. "You're okay."

Elena looked around, dazed, and took a few deep breaths. She pulled the quilt tighter around her body and laid her head back down on the couch.

* * *

**Elena POV  
**

Elena was in Stefan's arms, his lips brushing over the top of her head. She felt his chest lift with every breath he took and she sighed in contentment. Everything was perfect as it was when she suddenly felt a cold wind swirl around them. She looked up in confusion and saw Stefan's panicked face, his eyes were fixed on something in the distance.

"What's wrong, Stefan?" She asked. She tried to follow his gaze, but she couldn't see anything through the dark, cold mist that was suddenly everywhere.

"I don't know," He muttered, still looking over her head. Then he looked into her eyes and said: "Promise me you won't leave me." She barely heard his last words, a thundering noise had been building and now it sounded as if they were standing in the middle of a rainstorm.

"Of course I won't leave you!" She yelled over the noise. But then she felt it, a pull that made it hard for her to keep holding on to Stefan. She grabbed Stefan's arms and desperately tried to stay with him. It didn't help, she was pulled loose and she began to lose sight of Stefan's face.

"Stefan what's happening?" She yelled, but no answer came.

"Stefan!" She yelled as hard as she could.

Then she awakened with a start.

"Shhh, you're okay." She heard a voice say, and she took in her surroundings. When she saw Carmen sitting beside her, she realized where she was and she took a few deep breaths to calm herself and then laid down again. Her head was only inches away from Carmen's leg, but she didn't think Carmen would hurt her. She wasn't at all so sure about the men.

"Is everything alright?" She heard Carmen say, sounding worried.

"Apart from the fact that I was kidnapped and I'm now being held captive, I'm perfect." She said, shooting a dark glance at Carmen. She regretted saying it almost immediately afterwards.

"I'm so incredibly sorry." Carmen whispered. "You can't imagine how sorry I am."

"I don't think the others feel so sorry." Elena said, angry at them for keeping her locked up in the bathroom.

"Eleazar feels as bad as I do, but he can deal with it better. Most of all, we both want you safe at your own home."

Elena was confused. She didn't know why she was here, she didn't know what they would do with her, and she didn't understand why they took her if they felt so sorry. The taller man, Eleazar, had said they needed her.

"What do you need me for? Why am I here?" She asked quietly, afraid to hear the answer.

Carmen frowned. "I don't know everything, but I will tell you as much as I can." She turned to face Elena and crossed her legs. Elena sat up a bit straighter, it was hard to talk while lying down.

"First, you must have noticed that we are different. I mean Alec, Eleazar and myself."

Elena nodded, she _had_ noticed it. Aside from the pale skin and the dizzyingly fast movements she'd seen Eleazar make, there was something else, something she couldn't put her finger on. It was a creeping feeling which told her that they were different and dangerous. When she'd tested her aura on Eleazar and Alec, it had been the same as with Carmen: first she felt nothing, and when she tried harder, she only felt a vague impression of what she normally felt. Eleazar was calm and loyal, and he was good at observing people. Alec had made her feel very uneasy. He was smaller and younger than she was, but his aura told her he was a private person and incredibly dangerous. But aside from that there had been a weird, numb feeling when she'd tried his aura and it scared her.

"You can move very fast." Elena said, pointing out the most obvious thing.

"True. We're fast. And cold. Can I?" Carmen asked while bringing her hand to Elena's face.

Elena nodded and Carmen cupped Elena's cheek. It was true, Carmen's hand was ice-cold. Elena took it from where it rested on her cheek and held it between them. It was as pale as Carmen's face, and very smooth.

"What are you?" Elena asked in wonder. She realized Carmen wasn't a normal human. Normally, she wouldn't have thought something like that, but after she learned about Stefan, Bonnie and her own talent, it seemed only natural for Carmen to be something special, too.

"I'm a vampire." Carmen said.

Elena's mouth opened and closed again. She closed her eyes and shook her head. This wasn't true, they were nothing like Stefan.

"What did you just say?" She asked Carmen.

"I'm a vampire." Carmen repeated with patient eyes.

"That's not true." Elena said, feeling as if she were defending Stefan.

"You don't have to believe me, I know you think vampires don't exist, but soon you won't have a choice but to believe it." Carmen said gravely.

"What do you mean?"

"As I told you before, I will tell you everything I know. But you have to believe that vampires exist while I'm explaining everything, after that you can go back to saying it's not true. Can you do that? Can you pretend to believe that I'm a vampire while I do my best to explain all this?"

Elena nodded.

"Good. First you have to know about the Volturi. As vampires, we can't expose ourselves to humans, that's the one rule we have to follow. The Volturi enforce the law, they make sure everyone stays inconspicuous and they punish the ones who don't. Some of us have special powers."

"Do you have one?" Elena asked, finding Carmen to be a good storyteller.

"I don't, but Eleazar and Alec do. Eleazar can tell what kind of talent another vampire has and Alec can cut off your senses. Among the Volturi, there are lots of vampires with special talents. Aro, one of the three leaders, he kind of collects talents and they make the Volturi guard nearly invincible."

"That doesn't sound fair." Elena said, frowning.

"You're right about that. You can't even try to stand up against them. I never said I liked the Volturi. Some of them are fun to hang out with, but most just want power.

When our kind falls in love, there's no way back. We have one partner we are meant to be with. Me and Eleazar met, and we fell in love. I stayed with him for a while, but I hated living with the Volturi. We wanted a life of our own, away from them. This wasn't as easy as we thought it would be. Apparently Eleazar is one of Aro's most valuable guard members, and Aro wouldn't let us leave just like that. He told Eleazar to find someone to replace him. And that's where you fit in the story. Eleazar thinks you have a talent similar to his own, but you'll have to ask him about that, I don't know much about it." Carmen finished, her eyes sad.

"_I'm_ supposed to replace him?" Elena asked incredulously. "But what if I don't want to?"

"You wouldn't believe how much I've been thinking of ways to get you out of this, but I'm afraid you have no choice." Carmen whispered.

Elena was furious. Did they think they could just grab her and make her do what they wanted?

"I don't want to talk about this anymore." She said firmly, this was insane.

Carmen nodded. "I understand."

Elena was already making plans. She would have to learn as much as she could about them. Were they really vampires? Just a completely different kind? She had to think about this when she was alone, which is why she told Carmen she wouldn't talk about it anymore. She thought about Stefan and her friends and Aunt Judith. Aunt Judith would be really worried by now, it was a few hours after midnight. Stefan would hear about this when he came back in the morning and he would find a way to get her out of here. But where was she? She didn't even know if she was still in the in the neighbourhood of Fell's Church.

"Who's Stefan?" Carmen asked suddenly.

Elena panicked, could she read thoughts? Was that a basic talent of these vampires?

"Where did you get his name?" Elena asked, narrowing her eyes.

"You called for him in your dream." Carmen said, smiling sadly.

Elena felt a sharp pain when she thought about her nightmare and she longed for Stefan.

"He's… Elena didn't know what to call him. 'Boyfriend' wasn't the right word at all. And she didn't know why, but she wanted Carmen to know just how much he meant to her.

"He's everything." She said, but it still didn't feel right.

"You love him." Carmen said, smiling. "Sometimes it's as simple as that. I could go on for hours about Eleazar, but what it comes down to is that I love him. And it may sound like too small a word, but you shouldn't underestimate it."

For the first time, Elena could think about Eleazar as someone different than the man who captured her. Carmen was practically glowing with love when she talked about him, and Elena somehow felt a connection. She thought that if _someone_ understood how deep her love for Stefan went, it was Carmen. God, she missed Stefan, she _needed_ him. Before she could stop herself, she felt tears run down her face. She looked at Carmen, feeling a bit ashamed, this was the third time Carmen saw her cry.

"Oh, sweetheart." Carmen said softly. She wrapped her arms around Elena's shaking body. Elena didn't care if Carmen was a stranger, a mythical creature or a captor, she just needed someone who would comfort her now. So she let Carmen hold her and cried. She didn't cry for a long time, but it left her exhausted, it was the middle of the night after all. When her tears dried, she stayed where she was, leaned against Carmen.

"You can sleep if you're tired." Carmen said.

"Will you stay with me?" Elena asked, she'd felt incredibly alone for the last few hours, and it felt good to have someone care for her.

"I will, if you want me to." Carmen said.

Elena nodded and made herself more comfortable. She grabbed one of the pillows which were part of the couch and placed it on Carmen's lap. She twisted until her head was placed on the pillow and she pulled the quilt up to her chin.

"Are you comfortable?" Carmen asked, stroking Elena's hair.

Elena nodded. "You?"

Carmen laughed. "Don't worry about me, you can't hurt me."

Elena mumbled something in reply, but her eyes were already closed. She hadn't had much sleep up until now, so she decided to make the best of it while she could.

* * *

**AN: That was chapter 10, I hope you liked it :) Don't forget to review, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I probably won't update for at least two weeks, because my exams start next week. I'm sorry :s. Anyone else who's exams start soon: good luck!**


	11. Gathering

**AN: I had some trouble putting this chapter together, because the Volturi timeline and the Bonnie timeline are different. So I'll try to clear it out: This chapter begins where the last chapter ended: Elena fell asleep sometime during the night. Then, the Bonnie POV starts of at the moment Elena left Bonnie's house, right before she was kidnapped by Alec and Eleazar. I hope it's a bit clearer now.**

**Longest chapter yet :) Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: I don't own twilight or the vampire diaries, it all belongs to Stephenie Meyer and LJ Smith.

* * *

**Carmen POV**

Carmen felt so peaceful, sitting there while Elena slept, she never wanted this moment to end. She didn't want to think about handing her over to Aro or never seeing her again, but she would have to when Eleazar and Alec came home. She gently combed her finger's through Elena's hair.

That was how Eleazar found her when he came home the next morning. He stood frozen in de doorway, his eyes wide. Carmen smiled at him and held her finger in front of her lips, indicating that he had to be quiet.

"She's very tired." She whispered.

"Why is her head lying in you lap?" Eleazar whispered back, confusion clear on his face.

"Don't you remember _anything_ about being human? She was scared and lonely, she needed company."

"But why isn't she afraid of you? Shouldn't we tell her what we are?"

"I already did. And maybe she's not afraid of me because I didn't lock her up in the bathroom." Carmen said teasingly, to make it clear she wasn't mad anymore.

"You know I'm sorry about that. Alec told me that was best and I never did this before so…"

"So you listened to the guy who barely remembers what it's like to be human." She snorted.

"Did you bring her some food?" she added, remembering that Elena had to eat when she woke up.

"I did, though I don't know if it's any good. And Alec dropped a mattress and some covers not far from the house, I have no idea where he got it, but I guess he didn't want to come in."

"I hope he's not mad at me… Did you bring the mattress? We should give Elena the bedroom to stay in. She knows how fast we are, she wouldn't try to escape."

"If you say so…" Eleazar said, hesitating, but when he saw Carmen lift one eyebrow, he placed the mattress together with the covers on the bed.

Carmen carefully slipped out from under Elena and gently carried her to the bedroom. She wrote a note to lay beside her for when she woke up, and then quietly closed the door.

When she entered the living room she sat down next to Eleazar on the couch and leaned her head on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you." She muttered.

"I'm sorry for being an idiot." He muttered back, and she turned her head to softly kiss the smooth skin under his ear.

"The sweetest idiot I know." She answered.

* * *

**Bonnie POV**

After she and Elena had hugged goodbye, Bonnie started to clean up the mess in the living room. She took the spell book with her to her room, wanting to learn as much as possible. She practised the whole evening and she surprised herself by actually making progress already. She didn't have to read the words in the book anymore, looking at the candle and concentrating on the fuse would make the candle burn. She was afraid to try spells that were more difficult. She'd read that when you became more involved with witchcraft, and when your powers became stronger, you wouldn't be able to ignore other powers.

And it was true, she could feel it now, after training her powers all day long. She could feel traces of Damon's power lingering in her room, she could hear a low hum coming form the woods behind her house, and she felt more anxious every minute. She didn't know what, but _something_ was very wrong. The buzz coming from her phone startled her and for some reason she was afraid to answer it. Who would call her this late? It was almost midnight and every other night, she would have already gone to bed. A chill ran down her spine when she saw that it was Elena's aunt who called.

When she picked up, she could hear Aunt Judith's worried voice asking if maybe Elena was with Bonnie. Bonnie frowned at this and told Aunt Judith that Elena had already left a few hours ago. Aunt Judith had come home really late and had assumed Elena had already gone to bed, but when she'd gone to look just now, she'd found her room empty. Bonnie felt awful, she knew there was something wrong with Elena, and she knew it was irresponsible for her to lie about it, but she did.

"I think she went to sleep at Meredith's. She mentioned something about a sleepover earlier today." Bonnie said, her stomach turning.

"She is? I was so worried! It's nothing like her not to leave a note, I immediately thought something was wrong. I hope I didn't wake you, I'm really sorry for calling this late." Aunt Judith said, sounding relieved.

When Bonnie hung up, she immediately dialled Meredith's number.

"Meredith? It's Bonnie, something's wrong." Bonnie began, and she heard a noise on the other end of the phone.

"I'm sorry, wait a minute, I just knocked over my nightlight trying to get my phone." Meredith said and it was quiet for a few seconds. "Now calm down and tell me what happened. Is it serious? I was sleeping."

"I'm not joking, Meredith! Elena left my house a few hours ago and she went home, but I just got a call from Aunt Judith, who said that Elena hasn't been home at all! And she's not with Stefan because he will only be back in the morning." Bonnie was talking fast, growing more frantic with each word.

"What did you say to Aunt Judith?" Meredith asked, realizing Bonnie hadn't told her the truth.

"I told her she was with you." Bonnie answered.

"Why? If you really think something happened, don't you think Aunt Judith has a right to know? She could call the police–"

"That's just it!" Bonnie interrupted Meredith, "I've been working on spells en witchcraft all day –I'm serious about this, you have to believe me –and now my senses are heightened. I can _feel_ that this has something to do with magic, or something of the sort. The police won't be able to do anything."

"And you will?" Meredith asked sceptically, but Bonnie could tell she was worried, too.

"I have to. Can you come over tomorrow morning? I think we should talk about this as soon as Stefan is back. I will look for something that could help us."

"Okay… do you need me to do anything?" Meredith asked.

"Just tell Aunt Judith that Elena is with you, if she calls. But I don't think she will."

"I'll come over first thing in the morning. Good night, Bonnie."

"Good night."

Bonnie immediately began looking for a spell she could use to help Elena. It took her all night and a lot of trying, but she finally managed to find something that could be useful. She was exhausted and after leaving Stefan an urgent voicemail, she fell asleep on the couch.

The next morning, Bonnie was already wide awake and completely prepared for what she was about to do when Meredith and Stefan showed up at her door. It was still early – they'd decided to do this before school – and the air was still cold.

"Aren't we getting inside?" Meredith asked when she saw Bonnie opening the door while carrying a backpack and wearing a coat.

"No, we're not. I have to be outside if I want this to really work. Stefan, do you know why you are here?" Bonnie asked. They started walking towards the woods while Stefan answered.

"Meredith explained to me." He said, his forehead creased with worry. "You think something took Elena."

Bonnie felt extremely relieved when he said _something_, and not _someone_. It meant that he at least believed it was not something human.

She nodded. "I'd been building up my powers all day and I could feel it last night, something was wrong, and then Aunt Judith called."

"So you're going to use witchcraft to save Elena?"

Bonnie could see that he was not mocking her, he took this– and witchcraft –seriously.

"Do you think that will help?" Meredith asked Stefan, probably trusting his opinion more because he was, after all, something mythical himself.

"It depends on Bonnie's powers. But if she knows what do to, it could be a great help." He said, nodding fervently.

Bonnie felt the weight of the responsibility on her shoulders. It all depended on what she could do.

"Okay, so I looked up some things yesterday. The first thing that came to my mind was a locating spell, but I need Elena's blood for that, which I don't have." She couldn't help but glance at Stefan questioningly. He shook his head and Bonnie felt a bit stupid for assuming he would have Elena's blood stored away somewhere.

"After trying some other things, I found a spell which would make it possible for us to communicate with her, wherever she is."

"So we would know who took her, what they are and where they are." Meredith said.

"Right. I think I could do it."

"What do you need?" Stefan asked.

"I only need a candle, which is why this is one of the only spells I could do." Bonnie said, while taking a candle and matches from her backpack. They'd arrived at a open space between the trees and Bonnie sat down and placed the candle in front of her.

"Do we have to do anything?" Meredith asked, intrigued by how much Bonnie seemed to know about all this.

"Nope, just be quiet and picture me in your head."

Bonnie had memorized the whole page about communicating telepathically, and she knew exactly what to do, but she felt nerves as she lit the candle and closed her eyes. She had to concentrate on everyone she wanted to link minds with. She looked directly at the flame and felt herself getting into a trance-like state. First, she concentrate on Meredith's face, it got clearer as she stared at it and she moved on to Elena. She could see Elena as if she were really there, the bright flame she was staring at shimmered around Elena's hair. Then she tried to visualize Stefan, she thought about his slightly curled hair and his green eyes, and she couldn't help but notice how much he looked like Damon. Damon's hair was straight, but it looked just as soft and it fell just as perfectly around his face. She was pulled back from her daydream as the candle suddenly went out, and she looked up at Meredith and Stefan, feeling a bit dazed.

_Did it work?_ Bonnie gasped as she heard Meredith's voice inside her own head, Meredith's lips hadn't moved. She wanted to answer, but she didn't know how this worked. Could they hear everything she thought? How could she think something _to_ them?

"I heard you! How did you do that?" Bonnie said, feeling excited. She did it!

"I don't know, it's different from just thinking, though. It's as if you think it louder than your other thoughts, purposefully." Meredith said.

_Like this?_ Bonnie tried.

_Yes, I heard you_. Stefan answered, startling Bonnie.

"It feels so strange! Do you think Elena can hear us, too? She must think she's going mad if she's hearing our voices." Bonnie said aloud.

_Elena? Can you hear us? Try to say something, please_. Stefan said, sounding really worried.

_I can hear you, why is that? Who did this?_ Elena's voice sounded, and Bonnie could hear both Stefan and Meredith's relieved sigh.

_I did!_ Bonnie said enthusiastically. _I linked our minds together so we would know where you were and if you were okay. _She knew Elena wasn't saved yet, but this felt like a step in the right direction and she was proud of herself.

_Tell me what happened._ Stefan said, and Bonnie could hear in that one sentence how worried he had been, how desperate he was to have her with him.

_Oh, you won't believe me, I don't even believe it myself! Oh, Stefan, I need you so much right now!_

Bonnie couldn't tell for sure, but she was almost certain that Elena was crying while thinking this. And she couldn't say anything to Stefan alone, Bonnie and Meredith couldn't help but hear every word.

_They say they're vampires, but they're nothing like you, Stefan. And I think they're just a different kind. And they need me, they say I have to join them._Elena was talking very fast now.

_Did they hurt you? _Stefan asked quietly, and Bonnie thought he was probably thinking about things a vampire could do to humans.

_No, there's three of them, and Carmen is actually very sweet, she wouldn't hurt me._

_What are we going to do now? _Meredith said

_What do you know about them? Are they strong? Where are they taking you?_ Bonnie asked, trying to be helpful instead of just listening to everything they said.

_I don't know, they never said anything about that. _Elena answered, sounding miserable.

_Try to learn as much as possible about them. And try to figure out where you are. You'll be able to talk to the three of us like this from now on, I won't break the spell. Tell us when you know something that could help. _Bonnie said. Then she looked at Stefan and Meredith.

"We don't have to stay together, we'll hear when Elena has something that could help."

Stefan nodded, obviously having a hard time with not being able to do more.

_Stefan?_ They heard Elena say quietly.

_Don't worry we'll get you out of there. _He answered.

_I love you._

_I love you, too_. Stefan said.

Bonnie and Meredith awkwardly looked at the ground, feeling a bit out of place.

Bonnie put away the candle and they started to leave when she suddenly heard someone in her head, and it wasn't one of her friends.

_Hello, little bird._

_Damon? _Bonnie and Stefan said together, Bonnie sounding breathless and Stefan sounding furious.

_What are you doing_? He almost growled.

Bonnie could see Meredith flinch at the noise in her head. Meredith frowned and pointed to her head while mouthing '_Damon_?' at Bonnie.

Bonnie did something that looked like a shrug and avoided Meredith's eyes.

"I may have been thinking about Damon a little when I pictured Stefan." Bonnie muttered.

"So now he's linked to our minds, too?" Meredith asked in horror.

Bonnie didn't have time to answer because Stefan's eyes widened and he said: "How do you know what Damon looks like?" he continued talking in his head, his words directed to Damon. _What did you do?_

_Ha! She didn't tell you, now did she? The little witch and I already met. _Damon said, and Bonnie could almost _hear_ the smirk on his face.

_Did you ever wonder why you felt perfectly fine after __falling down those stairs?_

Bonnie's skin tingled and she slowly realized what must have happened after she fell asleep. She brought her fingers up to her lips, as if his blood would still stick there.

"I don't think I'm following. Can someone explain, please?" Meredith said, looking at Bonnie pointedly.

So Bonnie told them, while blushing brightly, about the night Damon tricked his way into her bedroom. When she finished, Meredith and Stefan just stood there, staring at her.

"That's very stupid. He could've killed you, you saw what he did to Stefan!" Meredith said.

"You didn't have any vervain, and I did. What was I supposed to do? Let him go to your house?" Bonnie said, and she saw Meredith's involuntary tremble.

"We can't blame Bonnie, Damon made her let him in." Stefan said.

"So what do we do now?" Bonnie asked, eager to change the topic.

"I think we should wait until Elena tells us more about those other vampires." Meredith said and Stefan nodded.

"I'll go home and see if there's anything else I can do." Bonnie said, already turning

"Wait," Meredith said. "Does Damon being included in the mind-link change anything?" she asked, looking at Stefan questioningly.

"I don't know… I don't think he's very interested in Elena. Let's just ignore him." He answered, shooting a meaningful look at Bonnie.

Bonnie avoided his eyes and said: "I think we should get going, or we'll be late for school."

* * *

When Bonnie got home from school, she immediately went up to her room to get the spell book. It felt as if she hadn't done enough to save Elena, and she wanted to change that. When she opened her door, she was shocked to see Damon lounging casually on her bed.

"Yes, let's just ignore me. That'll help." He said, flashing a smile that made Bonnie's heart forget to thud.

Bonnie was a bit proud of herself because she hadn't screamed. But her heart was hammering inside her chest, and she couldn't bring herself to move.

"Because it seems to me like you need some help." He said, standing up. When she didn't react he went on. "Which is good because I need something, too." He looked at her, waiting for her to say something.

"What do you need?" Bonnie asked, trying to sound confident. It didn't work, he laughed quietly at her squeaking voice and moved closer.

"I need you to do something for me, but not yet. Stefan is getting on my nerves and I'm going to have to wait until he rescued his damsel. I'm pretty sure he doesn't have the faintest idea of how to do that, and even if he does, he'll probably screw things up. So I'm going to help."

Bonnie tried to take in everything he said, but he was talking fast and it seemed as if he were talking to himself.

"You didn't understand a thing of what I just said." He stated.

Bonnie shook her head, not trusting her voice to sound normal.

"It doesn't matter. You only have to remember one thing: I'll help, if you promise to help me after Stefan has Elena back. You won't tell anyone about this." He said.

Bonnie was wearing vervain, and she came to the conclusion that he didn't even need his power. He could make her do anything just by looking into her eyes the way he did now.

"I'll help you." Bonnie said.

He nodded, and without saying anything else, he disappeared through her window.

* * *

**Elena POV **(earlier that day, around noon.)

Elena sat cross-legged on the bed and thought about what to do. It had been disorienting to wake up in the bedroom, and when she'd first heard Meredith's voice inside her head, she'd thought she was either dreaming or going crazy.

Hearing Stefan's voice again had been like finally breathing after being under water for too long. She was still confused about the part at the end. They'd stopped talking through thoughts, so now all Elena knew was that Damon and Bonnie had already met and that for some reason, Damon was part of the mind-link. And now she was supposed to learn as much as she could about the situation she was in.

She fumbled with the note she'd found next to her when she woke up, trying to decide whether to go to the living room or to stay where she was. The note was from Carmen, telling her that she could come out of her room whenever she wanted and that Eleazar had brought her breakfast. She wanted to stay alone, but her stomach complained as she thought about the food that was waiting for her in the living room. And her friends wouldn't be able to get her out of here if she couldn't give them anything useful. So she made her way to the door, opening it just a bit, so she could see who was there.

Carmen was sitting on the couch, Eleazar had his arms around her. They didn't look as if they'd seen her, but Carmen pointed at a bag lying on the table.

"If you're hungry, Eleazar brought you a sandwich." She said, turning around to smile at Elena.

Eleazar nodded at her. "Good morning."

Elena hesitantly returned his greeting and took the bag. She sat down on an old chair that stood in a corner and began unpacking her breakfast. She recognized the logo on the paper, it was from a sandwich shop in Fell's Church, which meant they weren't far from town. She would let her friends know when she was alone, and when she knew a bit more.

"Is it okay? I just picked something from the list." Eleazar asked when he saw her taking a bite of the sandwich.

Elena looked up at him and nodded.

"Don't you need anything?" She asked them.

"We can't digest it. And I wouldn't even want to try, it smells awful." Carmen answered, wrinkling her nose.

Elena thought about this. Stefan could eat normal food. She wondered how different they were from him and looked at them curiously.

Seeing them like this, sitting next to each other, it was obvious that they weren't human. She hadn't really noticed before, because thinking of him only brought back how scared she had been when he opened the bathroom door, but Eleazar was just as beautiful as Carmen. He had thick black hair and looked younger than she remembered. His eyes were kind and he was gently rubbing Carmen's back. She thought that maybe she had overreacted a bit when she'd thought of him as a monster.

"So you can only drink blood?" she asked, thinking about what Carmen just said. She had to start somewhere if she wanted to know more about them. They both looked a bit shocked at her question.

"Ah… Yes." Eleazar said, and she could see that he didn't want to scare her off by saying too much.

"How often?"

"Once every two weeks. But new ones need more." Eleazar was answering her questions as brief as she was asking them.

"How do you become a vampire?"

"You have to be bitten by one."

"And that's it?" Elena was surprised. Stefan had explained how it worked for his kind, and this was a lot easier.

Eleazar grimaced. "It's not as easy as it sounds. It takes three days to complete the change, during which the victim is in excruciating pain. And most of the time, the vampire doesn't have the strength to stop. Once we smell or taste blood, there's almost no going back."

"If it's so hard to stop, then how do you feed?" She asked.

"What do you mean?" Eleazar frowned.

"You kill people!" Elena realized. She'd thought they fed like Damon, taking a bit, but leaving the human alive.

Carmen turned her head away and looked at the ground, as if in shame. Elena had mixed feelings about what she'd said. She knew how much Stefan hated what he was, and he didn't even feed on humans. She tried to imagine how hard it had to be for Carmen, who, if Elena understood it right, had no choice but to kill people. But couldn't they find away around it?

"So why not hunt animals?" She said. It worked for Stefan.

Carmen lifted her head. "Could it work?" She asked Eleazar.

"I have no idea, I never heard about anyone doing that…" He said.

Elena could see that they were both thinking about it. How was it possible that hadn't ever thought about this themselves?

"We should try it." Carmen said suddenly, "It's not as if it could kill us." She rolled her eyes.

"Yes… but they don't smell like something edible…" Eleazar hesitated, but Elena could see the hope in his eyes.

"Fine. Be a coward. I'm going to try it _right now_, you stay with Elena." Carmen said, getting up from the couch.

"What, now?"

"Yes, now. I'll tell you what it's like." Carmen said, and turned to the backdoor. Elena saw that she fumbled with her eyes, and it looked as if she took out contact lenses. After a few seconds she was gone, leaving Elena and Eleazar in stunned silence.

"Does Carmen wear contact lenses?" Elena asked, trying to figure out why a vampire would need that.

"Yes. We have an…unusual eye colour." He said. When he saw Elena looking at his eyes, he shook his head. "I'm wearing them, too. We didn't want to scare you."

Elena thought about that. Would it matter to her if their eyes were weird?

"What colour are they?"

"Red."

Elena had suspected that much so the answer didn't scare her.

"Can I see it?" She asked.

Eleazar looked at her as if she was crazy and took his lenses out. It did shock Elena to see the bright red eyes, he looked a lot scarier. But for some reason, she was fascinated. She leaned forward on her chair, trying to see it better.

Eleazar frowned. "You're not reacting to this like I thought you would."

"What did you think I would do?"

"I don't know. I didn't think you'd sit in the same room as me for a start. Or sleep with your head in Carmen's lap! You really are one strange human." He shook his head. "You really don't mind the red eyes? It's a relief to finally take these things out, they interfere with our vision."

"Carmen said that if I wanted to know things, I should ask you. Why do you know so much more than her?" Elena asked.

"I know more about the Volturi because I worked with them for a long time. Apart from that, Carmen knows as much about vampires as I do, she just doesn't like to talk about it."

"Tell me more about it."

"You're so demanding." Eleazar complained. "Fine, what do you want to know?"

"How are you different from humans." Elena asked, this would be important to Stefan.

"We're stronger and faster. Nothing but another vampire can hurt us, it's like we're made out of stone. We don't sleep. And we don't eat human food, of course."

That was a lot of information and Elena thought about it for a moment. If only vampires could hurt them, where did that leave Stefan? And how strong exactly were they? Stefan was stronger than humans, too.

"I already saw you move really fast, but how strong are you?" She wondered.

Eleazar didn't say anything, but he bend down and laid his hand on the floor. Elena came closer to have a better look, and she saw him press his hand down. It didn't look as if he were pressing hard, but when he took his hand away, there was a dent in the floor in its exact shape. Elena was impressed. She didn't think even Stefan could do that. Then Eleazar rubbed his foot over the hand-shape and it turned to a uneven hollow.

Elena traced the sides of the broken stone and looked up at Eleazar. His face was close to hers, gauging her reaction, but when she looked up at him his jaw tensed and he turned his head away. She quickly went back to her chair, guessing what his problem was.

"Is it hard for you?" She asked.

He understood what she meant. "Yes. I don't know how Carmen manages it, sitting next to you. My control is good, but being in the house you slept in makes it harder, I'm not used to it. It's been a while since I last fed."

"If Carmen finds that animal blood works, too, would you try it?"

"I would. It would all be so much easier and better." He said, leaning his elbows on his knees and holding his head in his hands.

Elena felt sorry for him. She didn't know him, but she knew that he was a good man, that he wouldn't kill if there was another choice. She thought that maybe it was her sense that was telling her this.

Looking at him, she noticed that he wasn't wearing a ring. Could he walk in the sun without it? Or did he stay inside during the day? She realized she'd seen them leave only at night.

"What about the myths?" Elena asked, she'd started this conversation because Stefan, Bonnie and Meredith needed the information, but now she was getting interested, too.

"Well, I already told you that we don't sleep, so the coffin story isn't true. Crosses don't do anything. And we don't burn in the sun, but we… reflect it." He said, struggling to find the last word.

"What do you mean?" Elena asked, she didn't know how to picture it.

"With human eyes, it could be described as 'sparkling'. But we have better vision, and we can see that the sunlight reflects form our skin."

"Huh." Was the only answer Elena had to that. She still had no idea about how that would look.

"We've been able to go outside a lot in this town, there's something weird about the weather here. I can't figure it out. But it's convenient, so I don't mind." He shrugged.

Elena had to hold back a shudder. She knew that it was Damon who controlled the weather in Fell's Church the last few days, but she'd hoped that he'd left. Thinking about Damon made her think about the conversation she'd had in her head that morning. Was there anything else they'd wanted to know?

"Where are you taking me?" She asked suddenly. How could she forget about that?

Eleazar sighed. "It took a long time before we got to this part of the conversation. First of all, you have to know that Carmen and I are incredibly sorry for doing this, we don't really have a choice." Eleazar said, and Elena could see that he meant it. "We're taking you to Italy."

"_What_? _When_? Elena was shocked. How would Stefan find her? Did they have enough time?

"I don't know when. Alec contacted Volterra, they have a privet jet for this kind of thing, and it seems that there were some problems back in Italy. I haven't heard much from him since Carmen told him to go, but he'll be here this evening.

Elena didn't know what to think. There were problems, that was good, it meant that maybe they would have to stay a bit longer.

"A privet jet? Do they do this often, then?" She asked.

"No, it has other uses, too. There really isn't any other way. We have to get you to Volterra alive and human. Swimming the ocean isn't possible and a normal plane would cause a lot of problems." He explained.

"And what will happen to me once I'm in Volterra?" She asked, sounding scared for the first time since talking to Eleazar. What if there wasn't anything Bonnie could do? What if Stefan's plan failed? She wouldn't think about that. Stefan would do anything to get her out of this, and he would succeed. But she was still afraid to hear the answer on her question.

"They'll change you." Eleazar said quietly.

"But why _me_?" She couldn't hide the fear in her voice.

"That's what it's all about. You're supposed to take my place." Eleazar grimaced. "Elena, have you never felt something when you stood close to someone?" He asked, leaning towards her.

Elena's eyes widened, how would he know that? She hadn't told anyone but Bonnie, Meredith and Stefan. She wasn't sure about what she'd told Carmen when she was crying, but she knew that she never talked about her extra sense.

"Maybe Carmen told you about vampires with extra talents. I have a talent which makes it possible for me to know what another vampire's talent is. When it's a powerful talent, it works with humans, too. You're talented, Elena. You can do the same things I can. Maybe that's not exactly what your talent does now, but when you change, it magnifies."

"So they change me because you say that I'm talented? Can't you just…_not_ tell them? They would never know! You could say you didn't find _anyone_ with your talent!"

"I wish it were that simple. Aro is talented, too. He knows every thought you ever had with one touch of his hand. He'd know I was lying and he'd send the guard to get you." Eleazar sighed.

Elena felt like she was going to be sick. She didn't know if Stefan even _had_ a plan, and the more she learned about the Volturi, the harder it would be for his plan to work. Even if they freed her, the guard was still coming after her.

"So this… Aro, he's the leader right? Is he the one who's going to… _change_ me?"

"I'm not sure. It takes a lot of control to change someone, I think he'd make the one who's the most controlled do it."

"So there's a chance they'd just…drink until I'm _dead_?" Her voice wavered at the end and there was a hysterical edge to it. Before this conversation, she hadn't thought about what would happen if Stefan's plan failed. Now that was all she could think about.

Just when Eleazar said "That's possible.", the backdoor swung open and Carmen ran inside at an incredible speed. She rushed to Elena's side and looked at Eleazar.

"I cannot believe how insensitive and tactless you are!" She said exasperated.

Elena looked up at her with eyes that were filling with tears, and Carmen wrapped her arms around her. Elena was surprised at the spontaneous gesture, but it was comforting so she hugged Carmen back. Then she remembered the way Eleazar had looked when she came too close and pulled away.

"You don't have to do this if it's hard for you. You know, with the smell." Elena said uncomfortably. She didn't really want Carmen to stop mothering her. She'd been feeling very emotional since she'd been here, and it felt good to have Carmen who was so caring. She wondered what it would've been like if Carmen hadn't come with Alec and Eleazar. She'd probably still be locked up in that bathroom, drowning in her own tears.

"Don't be silly." Carmen interrupted her thoughts, and hugged her again. Elena didn't even know why she was crying, it seemed to be her body's natural reaction to _everything_ when Carmen was around. She clung to Carmen and her breathing hitched when she felt Carmen lift her of the ground. Carmen brought her back to the bedroom and laid her down.

"You look tired." She said, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

"I _am_ tired. How is that even possible?" Elena said. It seemed like all she did was sleep and be miserable.

"You've been talking to Eleazar longer than you think. I went to get you another sandwich after I hunted, I'm not sure how often humans eat, but I'm sure it's more than once a day."

"How late is it?" Elena asked, when she looked out the window, it did seem later than she'd thought at first.

"It's almost seven. You slept until noon, remember?" Carmen laughed, gently wiping away the last of Elena's tears.

"How did it go? Hunting on animals?" Elena asked, she hadn't been sure it would work, since Stefan was so different.

"They smell awful, that's for sure. But it works, if I can manage to feed only on them, it's perfect." Carmen said. "I don't know what it will do to my eyes, though. They changed a bit, see?" Carmen pointed to her eye.

At first, Elena didn't see what meant, but when she looked closer, she could see little golden flecks between the red.

"It doesn't affect my vision, so far." Carmen shrugged.

"I'll leave you alone now, I think you need that after today." Carmen smiled sadly. "Don't worry about being close to me, I've become a bit used to it since last night. Just be careful not bleed when we're around. And don't be mad at Eleazar, he didn't mean to sound so harsh, he hasn't been around humans like this for a long time." She said.

"It's okay. There's no kind way to tell someone their life will become a nightmare."

Carmen didn't answer, she just squeezed Elena's hand, and Elena knew that she was apologizing.

"I think I'll just try to sleep now." Elena said. Carmen left her alone after bringing her the sandwich and wishing her goodnight.

Elena wasn't going to sleep. She was going to think. And she was going to tell her friends everything she could.

* * *

**AN: I have this story planned out, sort of, and I won't write about Bonnie helping Damon in _this _story. I've been thinking about writing a oneshot in which Damon explains what he wants from Bonnie, and how she helps him. Just tell me in a review if you want to read about that, and I promise I will work on it. I won't write it if there's only one or two of you who would read it. I'm figuring out how to set up a poll on my profile, so check it out and vote :)**

**So: Review, so I know what your thoughts are about this chapter and about the oneshot. ( If I manage to set up a poll: please vote so I have a clear view on how many of you would want to read the oneshot. )**

**I hope you liked it! **


	12. Turning

AN: I wish everyone a happy 2011 :) and I hope you like chapter 12!

**Disclaimer: As usual, I don't own anything Vampire Diaries- or Twilight-related**

* * *

_Last Chapter: _

_Elena wasn't going to sleep. She was going to think. And she was going to tell her friends everything she could._

**Elena POV  
**

_Stefan?_ She thought, waiting for a reaction.

_I'm here, Elena, __I'm listening. Bonnie, Meredith?_ Stefan said.

Elena sighed at the sound of his voice, longing for his embrace.

Bonnie and Meredith both told Elena they were alone and ready to listen.

_Go__od, because I have a lot to say._ Elena said, and she began to tell them everything she remembered from her conversation with Eleazar. Her friends stayed quiet until she was done, and even then it took them some time to process everything she had said.

_So… what do we do now?_ Bonnie said hesitantly.

_What _can_ we do?_ Meredith said. _We can't just rush in and take Elena, we have to think about this very thoroughly._

_Meredith is right. Let's go over everything. We can't get near you, because they can hear us come._ Stefan pondered.

_We don't even know where I am. _Elena pointed out.

_Can you guys get out of my head already? You wouldn't believe how utterly annoying and depressing your little rescue talk is._ Elena stifled a gasp when she heard Damon.

_I'll lift the spell when Elena is rescued. _Elena heard Bonnie say, and she didn't understand it, but there seemed to be a hidden message to Bonnie's words.

_Then I'll just have to make sure Elena gets rescued, isn't that right__ Birdie?_ Again, Elena knew that Bonnie and Damon were telling each other something, and she couldn't stand not knowing. Stefan interrupted before Elena could ask Bonnie about it.

_What are you talking about, Damon?_ He said, and Elena could hear that he was trying very hard not sound hopeful.

_What I'm saying is, that I might know a way to get you and your precious Elena reunited. And you would, too, if you'd paid attention to anything she just said._

_Why would you help us? _Meredith said suspiciously.

_Because I want to get rid of your pathetic babbling, that's why. Now are you going to listen or what?_

_Yes. What do you have?_ Stefan said. Elena realized he didn't care about Damon, and that having her safe was the only thing on his mind.

_Well, as you know, they have to bring Elena to their big boss _alive_. And as you pointed out, you can't get to Elena because they hear you coming. Elena, do you think they would mind if _a bird_ came close? _

_That's it!_ Stefan said.

Elena didn't understand. _What are you talking about?_

Stefan explained. _Damon can turn into a crow. He would be able to fly over Fell's Church and look for your presence. Then we would know where you were. I don't know what he plans on doing when he gets to you, but I guess he's got it all planned out? _

_Of course I do! Elena has to turn. _Damon said dryly, and dead a silence followed.

Then chaos erupted in Elena's head as voices broke the silence by shouting at the same time.

_He's crazy. _Meredith scoffed.

_No __way! _That was Stefan.

_Are you mad? _Bonnie cried.

Elena just stayed silent. _That_ was his great idea? Keeping them from changing her in their kind of vampire, by turning her into his kind? She was speechless.

_If you__ would all just calm down, you'd see that there's no other way._

_Oh yes, please tell us your great explanation. _Bonnie said, and Elena was surprised at her attitude.

Damon snorted but explained anyway. _There's no way to tell the difference between a dead body and a freshly turned vampire._

Elena remembered that part of Stefan's story. He and Damon woke up in their coffins.

_It would be easy to fly to Elena, give her some of my blood and then kill her. Those others would leave since their prisoner is dead, and when Elena wakes up she's good as new._

_No! _Stefan said again. But Elena could hear that it didn't sound as determined as the first time.

She scooted down until she was covered by the blanket and buried her hands in her hair. She was shaking her head and mouthing 'no' even though she knew they couldn't see her.

_There has to be another way! _Bonnie and Meredith said simultaneously.

_You can look for another solution all you want, let me know when you're ready to acknowledge my greatness. _Damon said, and Elena knew that he wouldn't talk again, until they'd go along with his plan.

_Stefan? There must be something else we can do, right? _Meredith asked, but Stefan didn't answer.

_But you're strong, too, right? Can't you just break the door open en get Elena?_ Bonnie suggested.

_It wouldn't work, Bonnie. _Elena said._ They're stronger than him, and there's three of them._

_Look, I'll try to find out when they are planning to leave. Alec will be here soon, and he knows more about those things. _Elena said.

_Okay. Tell us when you know more, and we'll try to come up with a plan. _Stefan said.

_We'll find a way, Elena. I promise._ He added.

_I know you will. I miss you. I miss all of you. _She said, then she heard voices in the room next to her.

_Alec is here. I'll let you know when there's something important._

_Wait, Elena? You're okay, right? They didn't hurt you? _Stefan asked worriedly.

_Don't worry about me, I'm fine. _Elena assured him.

She said goodbye to her friends and rose from the bed. When she stood in front of the door, she didn't know if she could just enter the living room. She knocked and opened the door when Carmen said she could.

She saw Carmen and Eleazar sitting on the couch, and Alec stood in front of them. He nodded at her, he wasn't smiling, but he didn't look angry either. She looked away, not at all comfortable around him.

"Can I get some water?" She asked, looking only at Carmen.

"Sure, there are glasses in one of the cabinets." Carmen said, nodding at the sink.

Elena looked around until she found a glass and held it under the tap. When she took a sip from her water, Alec began to talk to Carmen and Eleazar, continuing the conversation they had before Elena came in.

"So, as I just said, Volterra will be ready in two days."

"Does Antonio know we're going to need the jet?" Eleazar asked.

Alec nodded. "It's scheduled to land nearby, the morning Volterra is ready."

Elena put together what they just said and nearly choked on her water.

"We're leaving in two days?" She asked.

Alec turned around to look at her. "What? Do you already have something planned?"

"Alec!" Carmen hissed.

He shrugged.

Elena was yelling inside her head. _We're leaving in two days!_

_What? _She heard Stefan say, sounding distressed.

_That's not enough!_ Bonnie cried.

_I've been thinking about this, and I mean really going over every detail, and I'm starting to think we should consider Damon's plan. _Meredith said.

Elena was shocked, and since Stefan and Bonnie didn't say a word, she guessed that they were, too. Meredith wouldn't say anything good about Damon, she wasn't too happy about vampires in general –though she made an exception for Stefan –and Elena would have never thought that Meredith would say something like that. But if Meredith saw no other way, that said a lot about the current situation.

Elena had almost forgotten that she was standing in the same room as Carmen and the two men. They were still talking about Volterra, but she didn't recognize any of the names, so she quietly slipped back into the bedroom, taking her glass of water with her.

She'd made up her mind. Meredith had gone over every detail, and Meredith was good at thinking things through, so Elena knew there was nothing left to do but go on with Damon's plan. It made her feel sick and she tried not to think too hard about it. From what she'd learned, being Stefan's kind of vampire was definitely easier than being Carmen's kind.

_I think Meredith is right._ She told Bonnie and Stefan.

_No!_

Elena knew that Stefan realized how desperate their situation was, and he couldn't think of another option either, he was just being stubborn.

She decided she'd had enough of this place, and there was only one way to get out of it.

_Damon._ She said.

_I'm glad you finally see reason._ He answered.

_How are we going to do this?_

_Elena!_ Stefan groaned at her determined voice, but he didn't say anything else.

_I'm going to fly over Fell's Church and I'm going to find that house you're in. Do you think they'd let you open the window?_

_Yes. _Carmen wouldn't mind.

_Then you open the window, I give you some of my blood and then I kill you. You appear to be dead and your vampires leave. Simple like that._

Elena shivered when he so casually talked about killing her, and she was glad her mental voice couldn't shake.

_I'm okay with all that, there's just one thing. _She said, having thought about this earlier. _It has to be Stefan's blood._

_What? _Damon said, sounding genuinely confused.

_I'm turning by drinking Stefan'__s blood. _She didn't know why this was suddenly so important to her, but it felt like the right thing.

_I'll make sure of it._ Stefan said, and Elena felt relief flow through her body. She hadn't thought about Stefan rejecting her, but this did mean that he had accepted that there was no other way. That he really wanted her.

_I don't care what you drink, as long as we get this over with, everything's fine with me. _Damon said._ I'm off searching for that house now._

_There's something else, _Bonnie said, _Aunt Judith won't stop calling me, she knows that something's up. And you already missed a day at school, Elena._

_I can take care of that. _Stefan said.

_Thank you._ Elena said, and then she yawned. _It's getting late, I'm going to bed. I hope I see you all tomorrow._

_Bye, Elena._ Meredith and Bonnie said, and then it went quiet, as if they'd hung up the phone.

Elena pulled the blanket up to her chin and tried to fall asleep. She wouldn't think about what would happen the next day.

* * *

**Bonnie POV  
**

Bonnie was up early the next morning. She, Meredith, Damon and Stefan would gather in the woods near the cemetery, and they would discuss everything there. She was curious as to how that would go, since the last time Damon and Stefan saw each other, Damon pinned Stefan to the ground with a stick. She decided to keep away from Damon as much as possible, Elena seemed to have guessed that there was something going on and Meredith was good at seeing things like that, too. She didn't know what it was that Damon wanted from her, but it had to be important, or he wouldn't care so much about getting Elena back to Stefan.

Bonnie and Meredith had to go to school, but since it was Wednesday, they had the afternoon off. They'd leave for school after meeting Stefan and Damon in the woods, and after school they'd meet Stefan at the boarding house.

Bonnie tried to avoid stepping into puddles as she made her way trough the trees. She tugged at her brightly coloured hat so that it covered her ears, and pulled her coat tightly around her body. After a few minutes, she could hear voices and she recognized Meredith's. It didn't take long before she saw Stefan sitting on a rock in a clearing with Meredith standing next to him. Stefan scowled at something on the other side of the clearing, and Meredith had one eyebrow raised. Bonnie could already guess who was responsible for that. As she stepped out from between the trees, she followed Stefan's gaze and saw Damon casually lounging on one of the lower branches of a tree. Seeing Damon made her feel uneasy in the pit of her stomach and she quickly turned to Stefan.

"Did I miss anything?"

"No, we waited for you before deciding anything." Stefan said.

"There's not much left to do, though." Meredith said. "We just have to wait and see what happens."

Bonnie could see that Stefan didn't like that, having to trust Damon. Bonnie wondered if he considered feeding on human blood, so that he could save Elena himself. He was much too weak now, his face pale and dark circles underneath his eyes. He probably hadn't slept at all. Meredith was unusually nervous, she ran a hand through her hair repeatedly and her eyes continued to shift between the faces of Stefan, Bonnie and Damon.

"So what will happen while we're at school?" Bonnie asked. She and Meredith wouldn't know if something went wrong, and they both hated that. She already knew they would be counting the seconds until they could leave school.

"Damon found the house where they keep Elena, he'll bring Elena my blood. Elena seems sure that she'll be able to let him in. If she drinks it, he will…turn her." Bonnie barely heard Stefan's last words, but she could see the pain on his face as he spoke them.

"I will wait until Elena is left alone and I'll take her to my room. We'll probably communicate through the mind-link, so be prepared for that when you're in class."

Meredith nodded.

Stefan tossed something to Damon. "That's my blood." Damon caught it and nodded, not a trace of a smirk on his face. Bonnie was glad to see that he took this seriously. He _had_ promised to free Elena, and she'd heard Stefan say that he didn't treat promises lightly. Of course, that meant that she had to fulfil her own promise, too.

After going over their plan once more, Bonnie and Meredith had to leave for school. They both wished Stefan good luck, and Bonnie glanced at Damon, who nodded.

* * *

**Damon POV**

Damon didn't see why he should stay in the clearing any longer. His little bird was leaving, he knew exactly what he had to do, and he wanted to get this over with. He didn't mind about the chattering in his head, he could easily ignore it, but he needed the witch to keep her promise. Which meant he had to keep his, he had to save Elena. And, surprising himself, he did care about her. He had no idea why, but this whole situation was making it hard for him to keep up the 'I-don't-care attitude'. Another reason why he wanted this to be over with.

He felt his brother's gaze on him as he watched the girls disappear between the trees.

"Damon-" Stefan said, but Damon interrupted.

"I know." He said. His brother wanted him to be careful with Elena, to be gentle. He wanted to thank him. Damon sensed it in his thoughts, and he didn't want to hear it out loud.

"I'll tell you when they're gone." Damon said, and then turned into his other form.

His birds eye quickly found the house where he'd sensed Elena's presence, and he landed in a nearby tree.

_Elena?_ He tried. He could see her from his spot. She was lying on her back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. When he called her name, her head shot up.

_Yes?_ She said anxiously.

_I'm ready if you are._ He tried to sound joking, but it was surprisingly difficult. Ugh, he shouldn't get involved with his brother's problems! But it wasn't for Stefan or his girl, it was because he needed his little bird's powers. Instead of just forcing her, he had to go and play saviour. He needed to get away from his brother's influence.

But now he had to focus on he task at hand.

_Elena, I need you to op__en the window. Can you do that?_

He saw her get up and leave the room. Then he could hear voices coming from the house.

"Carmen? Is it alright if I open my window? I'd like to get some fresh air into the room."

He had to admit, the girl was a good liar.

"Of course you can." A woman's voice said.

A men's voice groaned. "Carmen…I'm not sure…"

"She knows better than to run away. She won't leave the room. And I'd like some clean air, too. I don't know how you two can stand it all day long!" A more boyish voice said.

Elena closed the door to the bedroom and walked up to the window.

She opened it all the way, and waited. Damon waited, too. If those other vampires suspected something, they would be listening now. When their conversation went on and they didn't talk about Elena anymore, he flew to the window and perched on its border, carrying the vial that held Stefan's blood.

_Take the blood and drink all of it._

_

* * *

_

**Elena POV**

Elena watched the bird land on the edge of the window and saw that it held a vial with blood.

_Take the blood and drink all of it. _She heard Damon's voice say.

She slowly reached out to take the vial, and then held it in her hands, hesitating.

_Stefan? I'm going to drink it now. _

_Okay._ His voice sounded weak and Elena had to resist the urge to cry, she was scared.

She twisted the lid and opened the vial before fear could get the best of her and drank it. She glanced at the door and desperately hoped that no one would come inside now. When she looked back at the bird, a handsome guy was sitting in its place. Damon. It was the first time she saw him, and he wasn't like she imagined. When she heard him talk, he always sounded mocking, sneering. The guy in front of her looked serious, caring, almost.

_Damon_. She nodded at him in greeting.

He returned the nod and slid down from the windowsill without making a sound. When he stood in front of her, he held her head between his hands and frowned.

_I'm going to break you're neck. Are you sure about this?_ He asked.

_Oh, Elena! _Bonnie's whimper startled her. Elena realized that Bonnie and Meredith were at school, hearing Damon tell her how he was going to kill her. _Turn_, not kill, Elena corrected herself.

_I'll see you soon, Bonnie, Meredith. I love you Stefan. _

Then she looked up at Damon, wiped a single tear from her cheek, clenched her jaw, and nodded.

* * *

**Damon POV**

Damon admired her. There had to be something wrong with him, if he admired humans. Yup, definitely something wrong with him, first the little witch got him all mellow, now Elena.

He was holding her face between his hands, ready to snap her neck. She looked up at him and nodded, telling him it was okay to kill her. He almost didn't want to. But he moved quickly, Elena wouldn't feel a thing. He felt her go limp between his hands and caught her. He had to be fast now and he moved at incredible speed. He placed Elena's neck against the nightstand, trying to make it look as if she fainted and hit her head. Then he knocked against the wood to imitate the sound of her fall. It took him less than two seconds to do all that and fly through the open window.

_I'm waiting for them to see her and leave. _He told Stefan.

He was still on his way to the tree he wanted to land on, when he heard a cry of alarm from the house, it was Carmen.

"Elena's heartbeat!" She cried. The boy's voice cursed and the door to the bedroom burst open.

He heard Carmen gasp and saw her kneel down next to Elena.

"She's dead." She said, choking on the words.

"How is that possible?" The man, Eleazar, said. He knelt down next to Carmen and took her hand.

"She hit her head." The boy said dryly, he acted very indifferent compared Carmen and Eleazar. Damon thought that if this wasn't about Elena, who he –oddly enough –liked almost as much as his little bird, he would find this Alec boy amusing.

"Just leave, Alec." Carmen said, sobbing. Alec shrugged and Damon almost couldn't see him head for the woods, his movements were so quick they were blurry.

* * *

**Carmen POV**

"What do we do?" Carmen said. Her eyes stinging with tears that wouldn't come.

"Do you think Aro would approve of leaving her here?" Eleazar asked. His eyes doubtful. Carmen didn't think that Aro would mind. This sort of thing didn't really have anything to do with vampires. They had to be careful with bodies drained of blood, not teenagers who seemed to have run away.

"I think he wouldn't mind, the police will think she ran away from home." Carmen said. It didn't feel right to leave Elena like this, but she couldn't leave anything like a flower, that would mean there was someone with her when she died.

"We can't bury her. It would look like murder." Eleazar said.

Carmen knew that he was thinking about the same thing, but they couldn't leave Elena here, it would take a long time before anyone found her.

"I think I'll call the police and say that I've seen people in this house while it's supposed to be empty. I'll make it sound like something's wrong. They'd come and check then, right?"

"I guess so…" Eleazar nodded.

Carmen stroked Elena's cheek. "I can't believe it. She must've fainted or something, why would she fall? Maybe we didn't give her enough food. She seemed afraid to ask anything, maybe she fainted because of the hunger."

Eleazar shook his head. "Her stomach would've complained, I never heard that. And she wasn't afraid to ask for the water. Don't blame yourself." He squeezed her hand.

"I should probably call now. There's no point in staying any longer." Carmen said.

She wanted to leave. What Eleazar said made sense, she shouldn't blame herself, but something told her that this was her fault. She tried to keep herself together, but her chest hurt from holding back the sobs.

She took a few deep breaths and called the police. She told them exactly what she planned, the person on the other end of the phone seemed slightly alarmed and promised that they would check the house. By the time she hang up, Eleazar had packed all their belongings and put them in the car. Carmen was glad they would finally leave this place, and a part of her was glad that Elena wasn't leaving with them. Of course she was sad that Elena died, no human death had upset her this much since she changed, but she told herself that Elena wouldn't have wanted the life that waited for her. Holding on to that thought, she was able to keep her chest from heaving with unnecessary breaths, and to smooth out her face. Eleazar hadn't been as close to Elena, and to see Carmen cry would hurt him as much as Elena's death did.

They agreed on splitting up. Carmen would drive the car to a certain point, and Eleazar would meet her there after he tracked Alec. Eleazar immediately left, easily finding Alec's scent. Carmen went back to the bedroom. She softly kissed Elena's cheek, to say goodbye, and then she left, too. When she was alone in the car, she let the sobs escape. She would have enough time to pull herself together on the way to their meeting point, and she was glad to able to let her emotions out. She didn't see the road in front of her, she could only see Elena's sleeping face, placed in her lap. She wouldn't have such close bonds with humans again. She knew that Elena was special.

* * *

**Damon POV**

_They're gone. _Damon said. Stefan had been asking him about that almost every single minute, and Damon was glad when he could finally shut him up. He waited a few moments after the car turned around the bend, and then he quickly went to the house. He found Elena where he left her, her head angled up against the edge of the nightstand. If he hadn't seen her drink the blood, he would've thought she was dead, too. But that's what happened almost every time someone was turned. Most freshly turned vampires woke up in their coffins, just like he and Stefan had.

He lifted her up and carried her in his arms. It wouldn't take long to get to the boarding house. He left the house and ran through the woods, careful not to let the branches tear her skin. It hadn't been an real promise, but his brother had asked him to be gentle, and he was going out of his way to be nice anyway. After a few minutes, he could see the boarding house from behind the trees.

Stefan must've felt him coming, because he was waiting in front of the house before Damon reached the edge of the woods.

"She's all yours." Damon said, and handed Elena over to Stefan. Stefan immediately took her in his arms, cradling her against his chest. He looked up, locking eyes with Damon.

"Thank you." He said, and Damon nodded. Then he turned and headed upstairs, leaving Damon outside.

Well, he hadn't done all this work just to turn around when his part was done. Damon followed Stefan up the stairs and watched him lay Elena down on the bed.

_We're outside the school now, can we come over?_ Bonnie sounded in their heads.

Stefan quickly looked at Damon, who shrugged.

_I'm not sure if that's such a good idea… She's still unconscious, and I don't know what she will be like when she wakes up._ Stefan said.

_Oh come on, Stefan! You said we could! And Damon'__s still there right?_

_Yes._

_The two of you will be able to stop her if she does something dangerous. And Meredith and I could wait outside when she wakes up. _Bonnie pleaded.

_Fine. But when I tell you to leave, you leave, okay? She'd hate herself if she hurt one of you._

_Promise. We're on our way._

Stefan sighed. Damon began to regret his decision to come up here with Stefan. There was nothing going on, Elena was sleeping and Stefan was worrying. And it would take some time before his little bird arrived.

"How long is she going to be like this?" Stefan asked, stroking Elena's hair.

"How would I know? It's only been an hour, it could be midnight when she wakes up." Damon said. After standing there for a few more minutes, he was bored out of his mind.

He slipped out of the room without saying anything and decided to do something else until the witch came.

* * *

**Stefan POV**

Stefan heard Damon leave the room, but he didn't bother to look up. Damon was not acting like his leering self, which made Stefan feel confused. He couldn't deal with confusion right now, all his attention was focused on Elena, so he pushed his worries about Damon to the back of his mind. Elena. He held her in his arms, sitting on the bed, and kissed the top of her head. He knew that it could take a while for her to wake up, but he wouldn't leave her for even a second. It was frightening, holding her and not hearing her heartbeat. He _knew_ that she was going to be fine, she _would_ wake up, but he panicked every time he watched her long enough to notice she wasn't breathing. He stroked the stray strands of hair out of her face and kissed her forehead. He didn't know how long he sat there, whispering her name, telling her that he loved her, that everything was going to be alright, when voices outside the boarding house startled him.

It was Bonnie, and she was yelling his name, while Meredith told her to shut up.

"What did you make the mind-link for?" He heard her say.

"Oh, right!"

_Stefan? We're at the boarding house now, can we come up?_

_Yes, but there's not much to see. It could be a while before she wakes up._

He heard them climb the stairs to his room when the window burst open and Damon flew inside, already changing from bird to vampire.

There was a knock on the door and Bonnie and Meredith entered. Bonnie saw Elena cradled in Stefan's arms and her eyes widened.

"She's really here! She's gonna be fine!" She exclaimed happily.

"Oh, Damon, thank you!" She took a few excited steps in his direction and then halted, blushing. She carefully stepped back until she stood at Meredith's side again, and her eyes changed from big and excited to big and scared. Damon bowed, "My pleasure."

Bonnie seemed to relax after that. She'd been so happy to see Elena, she'd forgotten how dangerous Damon was. Stefan looked at Meredith and saw that she wasn't at all as happy as Bonnie.

"Are you sure she'll be fine?" She asked Stefan.

He nodded, "I'm worried, too, even though I know there's no reason. She'll be okay."

Meredith moved closer to the bed and took Elena's hand in hers.

"Then we'll just have to wait." She said, and gave Elena's hand a soft squeeze.

* * *

**AN: Next chapter will probably be the last, unless something _very _unexpected pops up in my head ^^ **

**Don't forget to review :) **

**A happy new year to all!**


	13. Reviving

**AN: Hi everyone! This is the last chapter, so thank you to _everyone_ who's read this story, I hope you liked it :) **  
**Also, thank you Mona and VampGirl4ever for _reading and reviewing every single chapter_, you're both amazing!**  
**And last but not least, my awesome beta Danielle Salvatore who reads at the speed of light.**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own anything, everything belongs to Stephenie Meyer and LJ Smith.**

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**Elena POV**

Elena was having feverish nightmares, she wanted to move or wake up, but she couldn't. She had no control over her body, and could only watch the images as they flashed inside her head. There was nothing she recognized, no Stefan, no Bonnie, no Meredith. Damon had been in her nightmares first, she saw him holding her head between his hands, over and over again. She heard a sickening snap as he quickly twisted her neck, time after time. Her brain had made this up, she hadn't felt or heard a thing when he did that. But that didn't make it any easier to see. Carmen had been in them to, her face wet with tears, though Elena had never seen her cry before, she wondered if Carmen even _could _cry. Those were the only faces in her dreams. She ached to see Stefan, but her mind wouldn't let her hold on to his face. He was always just out of reach.

Now only colours were dancing in front of her eyes, quick flashes of red and orange, making her think of fire. It was exhausting.

When the nightmares ended, she longed for them. Because the nothingness was worse. Blackness pressed on her eyes, numbing her mind. It was worse because just when the dreams had stopped, just when she could finally think clear and picture Stefan in her head, her thoughts began to slip away. She started to panic, was she really dying now? Had something gone wrong? She could barely think as she struggled to hold on to his image. Numbness settled over her like a veil and she fought it, trying to stay aware, but it had no effect. Her mind clouded and she let go.

She felt nothing.

* * *

**Stefan POV**

Bonnie quietly opened the door, Meredith followed in after her.

"No change?" She whispered.

"None." Stefan answered. He hadn't left the bed, but was now leaning against the headboard, one arm around Elena, who was lying on top of him.

Bonnie sat down on a quilt she and Meredith had spread out on the ground. Meredith walked over to the bed and held Elena's hand in both of hers. She just stood there, closing her eyes and sighing, before she let go of it. It limply fell down on the bed.

That was the worst part, Stefan thought, Elena didn't look as if she were asleep. If she'd been asleep, she respond to his touch, maybe even clutch his shirt. She was motionless, not even breathing.

It was getting late and outside the colours were turning to dark-blue. Bonnie and Meredith had been waiting in Stefan's room for hours and they'd gone home to eat, but they wouldn't stay away any longer than necessary and were back now. Damon stopped by regularly in case Elena woke up and they needed his help. Stefan didn't understand, he'd thought Damon would be long gone from the moment he'd done his part.

"I brought the things I need to lift the spell, the mind-link." Bonnie said. She zipped her backpack open and took the things she needed. A candle, a cup and a bottle of water.

She poured some water into the cup and placed the candle in it.

"Where's Damon?" She asked, her eyes glancing around the room. "Everyone needs to be here to lift the spell."

"I'm sure he'll be here any moment." Stefan said. He'd noticed that Damon always showed up when Bonnie arrived somewhere. He didn't give it much thought, Damon would leave town soon, and he'd move on to make another girl blush.

_Damon? I need you to come to the boarding house so I can lift the spell. _Bonnie called.

Not a minute later, a crow perched on the windowsill and turned into Damon.

"We need to form a circle around the cup, but with Elena being… you know." Bonnie waved her hand in the direction of the bed. "I'll just move the cup to the bed and we'll do the best we can."

Stefan sat up a bit straighter and Meredith moved to the left side of the bed. Damon stood on its right side and Bonnie was facing Stefan. She lit the candle and closed her eyes.

"Do we need to do anything?" Meredith asked, and Bonnie shook her head. Stefan saw Bonnie's forehead wrinkle as suddenly the candle's flame flickered wildly. The flame grew higher and Stefan could hear a soft humming sound inside his head. Then the flame went out and the humming stopped.

"Done." Bonnie said, her voice shook.

Stefan realized that it may not have looked very impressive, but lifting the spell hadn't been easy for Bonnie.

"Thank you, Bonnie. Getting Elena out of that house wouldn't have been possible without you." He said.

Bonnie blushed. She put her things back in the backpack and sat down again on the quilt. Meredith joined her there and shot a few suspicious looks at Damon.

Stefan turned his attention back on Elena. She hadn't changed much. She was paler, she was colder to the touch and her face seemed slightly sharper, but he didn't think that a human would notice that. He ran his hand through her hair, stroked her face with his fingertips, waiting for a reaction.

Damon was just making his way to the window when it happened. It wasn't much, just a twitch of her finger, but it made Stefan gasp and Damon halt his movements.

"What? What is it?" Meredith asked.

"Is she waking up?" Bonnie stood up to see better. Both she and Meredith knew that it could be dangerous if they were too close.

Stefan didn't answer. He took the hand that had moved and called Elena's name. He felt the fingers he held move again.

Then Elena's head shot up and she gasped for air. Her eyes were wide and panicking. She grabbed his shirt and called his name between sucking in breaths. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly to his chest. "I'm here, Elena, you're okay." He said.

She didn't seem to hear him, he felt her tremble in his arms and her eyes flitted wildly around the room. He held her head between his hands, forcing her to look at him.

"Shh. It's okay. Shh." He said softly.

Her chest was still heaving and her breathing came in ragged gasps, but she was calming down. No one moved. Bonnie was looking at Elena with big eyes, Meredith was leaning forward, wanting to help but staying back, and Damon had his eyebrows raised, looking startled. They all waited for Elena to catch her breath.

"How do you feel?" Stefan asked after a few moments.

"I don't know. Different. My neck aches." She said, bringing one hand up to her neck.

"That's normal, it's still healing." Stefan said, "Do you remember what happened?"

He wanted to be sure that Elena was thinking clearly, that she wouldn't do something dangerous.

"I think so," she hesitated. "I remember Damon being in the bedroom. How long ago was that?"

"You slept through the day and half of the night. Damon brought you here this morning and it's almost midnight now." Stefan said.

Elena looked around the room. "You're here?" She said, seeing Bonnie and Meredith.

"We wouldn't leave you, Elena. We've been so worried!" Bonnie said.

"So, who are you going to drink?" Damon said, motioning at Elena's friends.

Elena anxiously shook her head.

"Oh, come on! Don't tell me you didn't talk about this!" Damon rolled his eyes. "Unless you're just going to feed on someone you don't know."

"He's right, I should've thought about this." Elena said, chocking on the words.

She looked so fragile in his arms, Stefan thought. Instead of strong and dangerous, she looked afraid and small, still clutching his shirt.

"There wasn't much time to think. You needed to get away from that house." He said, stroking her cheek. "I won't let you hurt anyone."

"Well, she'll have to feed somehow. Otherwise all of this was for nothing."

"What are you all _talking_ about?" Bonnie exclaimed.

Stefan realized that they didn't know about the turning process.

"Elena isn't fully turned yet," He told them, "She has to drink human blood."

"And Damon thinks…" Meredith's voice trailed off.

"That one of you should volunteer. Or Elena has to go out and bite a stranger, like I care." Damon shrugged.

It was quiet. Stefan didn't look at Bonnie or Meredith, he thought they should choose for themselves. Elena looked down at the sheets.

"You don't have to. I'll figure something out." She said, and Stefan knew that she really meant it.

"No." Meredith straightened up and squared her shoulders. "You can't feed on a stranger. I know what could happen if you did."

Elena was at a loss of words, she buried her face in Stefan's shirt. He knew that she was trying to resist, Meredith's blood was calling to her and the offer was tempting. She would have to feed soon.

Meredith looked confident, but Stefan could see a trace of fear behind her eyes. She walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge.

"No, Meredith, please. I don't want to." Elena groaned, she had her nose pressed against Stefan's chest and her eyes shut.

"You're really okay with this?" Stefan asked Meredith. She nodded.

"It's not a bad idea, Elena. I'll keep Meredith safe, you know I wouldn't let anything happen to her."

"I know, but…" She sighed.

"Look, Elena, I _want_ to help. Bonnie made the mind-link, Damon turned you and Stefan held you all day. I'm the only one who didn't do anything. Please let me do this, it would make me feel better." Meredith said.

Stefan realized that she was trying to make Elena feel guilty, and it seemed to be working. Elena was slowly turning her head to look at Meredith. Her eyes focused on Meredith's neck and Stefan could see her upper lip change slightly. He knew what was happening, and Elena did, too. She raised her hand to touch her mouth and her eyes widened.

Stefan saw her eyes become darker and veins running underneath them. Meredith's mouth opened slightly in shock, but she recovered quickly and scooted closer.

"Elena, I can see that you're struggling. I know you won't hurt me." She said, and she held her long dark hair out of the way.

Stefan saw Elena's expression change, she wasn't resisting anymore, but she still looked confused. He remembered that, not knowing what to do the first time. He released his grip on her slightly and guided her to the right spot. Before he let go of her, he look at Meredith. She looked scared, there was no doubt about it, but she swallowed and nodded.

"Try to relax, it only hurts if you resist." He told her.

He sat behind Elena and held her shoulders, he expected her to go for Meredith's neck, but she turned around and faced him instead. He didn't understand, every other vampire wouldn't be able to hold back, especially not freshly turned ones, but Elena did. She looked at him and he saw tears gather in her eyes.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh Stefan, I _want_ it, I really do." Her voice caught.

"That's okay, you don't need to hold back now." He said, he didn't understand her reasoning.

"I can't! I can't _bite_ her! What if I do it wrong and hurt you?" She said, looking at Meredith. "I'm scared." She added. Her eyes were still black and her canines extended, so he knew that she couldn't hold back much longer.

"If it's just the start that's the problem, then you do it, Stefan. I'm freaking out more every second and I just want it over with, okay? Just bite me and then let Elena have my blood."

Stefan felt sorry for Meredith and decided that she was right. He hesitated for one more moment and then looked at Damon.

"Hold Elena back, just in case."

He didn't think anything would happen, but maybe her control would snap as soon as she saw the blood on Meredith's neck. Damon's arms immediately encircled Elena's torso, pinning her arms to her sides.

Stefan held one hand to Meredith's back and gently angled her chin up with the other.

"I'm sorry, it will only hurt for a second." He said, then he felt his canines extend and brought them to her neck. He felt her jerk away when they touched her skin, she shouldn't do that, it would hurt, so he tightened his grip on her to hold her still. She understood what he meant and he felt her body relax a bit more. Carefully, he sank his teeth into her neck. She gasped and he quickly released her when he tasted her blood. He moved away and saw Damon move Elena forward. She didn't need more urging, she placed her lips around the small wounds on Meredith's neck and began to drink. Stefan lightly put his hands back on her shoulders, ready to pull her away. He looked at Meredith, her fists were clenched around the sheets, but she gave him a small smile to let him know she was okay.

After a few moments, he tugged on Elena's shoulders. She didn't need much, it was only to complete the change. They could hunt later to satiate her thirst. She didn't release Meredith right away and he pulled on her chin, careful not to hurt Meredith. Elena noticed him and quickly let go, she moved away from Meredith and tried to calm her breathing. Stefan glanced at his brother, Damon nodded and went to stand behind Elena, ready to restrain her if necessary.

Stefan turned his attention to Meredith.

"Are you alright?"

"I think so, she didn't really hurt me." Meredith's voice came out rather weak.

He turned her head to the side and examined her throat. There were only the two small wounds he'd made, Elena hadn't bitten her or torn her skin.

"Bonnie, do you have a tissue somewhere?" He asked, looking at her for the first time in a while. She was looking at the scene on the bed with wide eyes and her mouth slightly open. "I ah… yes, wait." She shook her head to clear it and grabbed her purse. Meredith took a tissue from her and pressed it against her neck.

"You can let me go now, Damon." Stefan heard Elena say from behind him. He turned around and saw Damon step back. Elena was in his arms within a second.

"Did I hurt Meredith?" She whispered, the thirst had disappeared from her eyes, concern taking it's place.

"No, you were very careful." Stefan said, and he kissed her gently.

Elena turned around in his arms and faced Meredith. "I'm sorry." She said.

Meredith shook her head and smiled. "It was my own choice. I'm glad I could help."

* * *

**Elena POV **

"Have I changed much?" Elena said suddenly.

Stefan shook his head. "You'll be able to go home. Just keep your distance at first."

Elena missed her little sister. She wanted to go back home and pretend like everything was normal. She wouldn't hurt her own family.

"I think we should go now." Bonnie said, and then she winked at Elena.

As much as she loved her friends, Elena was glad she would have some time to be alone with Stefan. She mouthed _thank you_ at Bonnie and turned to look at Damon, but he'd already disappeared.

Bonnie hesitated, she was standing between the door and the bed, looking at Elena. Elena knew what she was thinking. She sighed.

"Come here, I missed you." She spread out her arms.

Bonnie didn't need to be told twice, she nearly jumped into Elena's arms and hugged her hard. Elena felt relieved. For just a moment, she'd thought that Bonnie wouldn't want to hug her.

"I missed you, too. So much. And I don't care about how much you changed, now I'm not the only one who's weird." Bonnie grinned.

She didn't look scared at all and Elena even had to slip out of her embrace when she felt the changes in her face begin.

"It does look creepy, though." Bonnie grimaced.

Elena thanked Meredith again, who was looking much better now. Meredith only shook her head and squeezed Elena's hand. Then her friends left and the room was quiet.

Elena was still looking at the door, and she felt Stefan's gaze on her. She wondered what he really thought about all this, and she was afraid to ask. Of course he had been there fore her when she woke up, and made sure she didn't hurt Meredith, but they only knew each other for a short time. He'd been alright with turning her, but he hadn't had much of a choice. She was in his arms in less than a second, his mouth pressing down on hers. He moved his lips to her ear. "Don't ever think such things." He whispered.

She was surprised, but he distracted her by kissing her neck and collarbone. And he was right, she shouldn't think about that. She put all of her worries aside and focused only on Stefan's touch. His one hand held her close while the other stroked her hair, and he kissed her softly. She linked her fingers in his hair and smiled against his lips. Eternity would be just fine, as long as she had Stefan to spend it with.

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**AN: I hope you enjoyed reading my story as much as I loved writing it. ****If you want to know what Damon wants from Bonnie and what happens between them, be sure to check out my new oneshot 'A Promise To Keep', it takes place the day after this story. ****Everyone who never reviewed before, this is your chance! I'd love to hear your thoughts about this last chapter or the story as a whole. Please?**

**Thanks!**

**Ine**


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